


The Right Kind of Wrong

by turningthepages



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Case Fic, Everyone Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, Jealousy, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:07:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 32,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24333322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turningthepages/pseuds/turningthepages
Summary: A marriage retreat. A fake relationship. A scandalous affair. Just another day in the life of a hunter.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Rowena MacLeod/Original Character(s)
Comments: 31
Kudos: 244
Collections: Perfect Pair Bang 2020 (Official)





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm nervous to be posting this story but excited at the same time. I decided to sign up for the Perfect Pair Bang on a whim and when we were in the matching process I was lucky enough to find an artist who encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and try writing a canon-divergent case-fic. I know at heart I'm an alternate universe writer but it's been so much fun working on this story and pushing myself to write in this way. I hope this reads like a cheesy episode would since that was my ultimate goal. 
> 
> Thank you to Bonnie for working with me and encouraging me every step of the way. I'm so glad that I've found a new friend through this Bang. 
> 
> If you're still reading this, I hope you all enjoy our story. Bonnie and I worked closely together to outline every detail we put in and she and her husband are featured as two original characters in this <3 Please go check out her [artwork](https://weldersmightyb.tumblr.com/)

Fall had just rolled in and sent a relentless chill through the bunker. The boiler, no matter how much Dean pleaded with it, seemed to believe it was not quite cold enough to begin warming the place. It was one of the many things he had to put up with living in the underground fortress. He wasn’t certain if it was the many enchantments the Men of Letters placed on it or if all the warding and magic that flowed through the walls was enough to breathe some life into her, but the bunker always seemed to have a mind of its own. 

God damned Men of Letters with their god damned magical bunker. 

Dean had wanted to kick the living shit out of the boiler until it turned on that morning but he knew better. The one time he’d got pissed at the bunker’s AC for not blowing cold enough air, he was stuck with friggid ice showers for a week as Sam got to bask in warm delightful ones. He knew better than to disrespect her now and let the bunker choose when they needed a bit of a temperature change so Dean was stuck as he was, cold and trying to act unaffected. 

He was at the library desk with his feet propped up, wiggling his toes inside the winter socks he’d secretly put on under his boots. He even had a thermal underneath his flannel and was considering running to his room to grab his jacket with the alibi that’d he’d be heading out to get more beer soon when his brother roughly shoved him by the shoulder. 

“Dude, are you even listening to me?” 

There was no telling how long Sam had actually been talking before he realized that Dean hadn’t been listening to a lick of what he was saying. It wasn’t the first time Dean tuned out the sound of his brother’s voice well before the kid ever started speaking. 

“No. I tend to tune you out as often as I can. You’re like an annoying gnat that won’t freaking stop yammering.” 

He could have lasted a few minutes longer in Sam’s impromptu staredown but his brother insisted on huffing and puffing, then shoving his phone in Dean’s face. 

“I’m serious. I have a case.” 

Dean let his eyes adjust from going near cross eyed before trying to read the string of texts between his brother and someone named Barnes. From what he could tell this Barnes guy had found some suspicious happenings at a hotel but Dean couldn’t finish reading all of it before Sam pulled the phone away. 

After a moment of contemplating the name Dean finally asked, “Wait? Is this the dude from Chuck’s book convention?” 

Sam’s fingers were moving quickly as he shot a new text to Barnes, not looking up at Dean as he answered. 

“Yeah, he and his partner Demian—remember him?—they aren’t in the life but they reach out to me every now and then if they think something’s suspicious.” 

Dean already knew that regardless of what was happening, if Barnes and Demian were headed out somewhere that could have suspicious activity, he, Sam, and Cas would be checking it out just to be safe, even if nothing turned up. 

Something Sam just read from his phone seemed to be important but Dean stopped him with a raised hand. 

“Okay, hold on.” Jumping to his feet, Dean walked down to the nearest hallway and shouted, “Cas, get your ass in here.” 

He wasn’t quite sure which room the angel was in but he knew with Cas’s supersonic hearing that the angel would turn up soon. 

Sure enough with a scowl on his face and a dirty rag in his dust covered hands, Cas shuffled into the library. 

“What is it Dean? I was in the middle of archiving—” 

“Sam’s got a case,” Dean said, cutting him off. He knew Cas was enjoying his time working through the tombs of the bunker and sifting through each collected artifact and journal the Men of Letters kept but when it came to hunting, Cas still made it a priority. 

With a nod, Cas pulled up a seat next to Dean and folded his hands into his lap turning his full attention towards Sam who was still frantically texting. 

Dean leaned back into his chair and folded his hands behind his head. “Alright, lay it on us.” 

They waited a few more moments for Sam to finish his thought before addressing Cas to catch him up to speed. 

“Old buddies of ours, Barnes and Demian, were looking into retreats for their one year wedding anniversary and they eventually found one in Angola, Indiana but when they were looking at reviews they noticed some strange occurances.” 

Sam slid his phone across the table to show screenshots of the reviews he was referring too. As Cas held the phone between his hands, Dean took the chance to lean over his friend’s shoulders and actually read through the reviews as Sam kept talking. 

“Some of the guests talked about being creeped out by the fact that over the years there’ve been some cases of missing persons or bodies being found in the woods.” 

Dean read a review from a woman condemning the hotel for even staying open after so many tragedies. 

“How many people are we talking here?” He asked, worried that this was going on longer than should have been allowed. 

“Barnes was able to poke around and get us some files and it looks like six different cases dating back ten years ago. All with random intervals of time between the deaths, some with two different spouses going missing in the same year.” 

Dean was suddenly in agreement with a lot of these commenters. Why would a place with a reputation of its guests going missing and turning up dead want to continue hosting the same event?

“And people are still going to this thing?” 

Sam nodded grimly. “The police reports all state that they don’t suspect foul play and that it appears the spouses just wandered away and died of natural causes.” 

Cas finished reading through the messages between Sam and Barnes. “Are there any other similarities between the victims besides them being married and at this retreat?” 

“None that I can tell,” Sam declared. “Some were in same sex relationships, some were interratial partners, a few were from Indiana while others lived out of state.” 

“Okay, so, whatever it is is targeting married couples?” Dean asked. 

“Looks like it.” 

In his mind, Dean could already see the many ways this case could blow up in their face but the fact that there would potentially be dozens of married couples there was the top of his concerns. 

“So what, we go in and just stalk every married couple at this _marriage_ retreat and try and see who this thing tries to nab?” 

“Wouldn’t it make more sense if we go undercover?” Cas’s voice interjected before Sam could respond. 

Dean already assumed they’d be undercover and in their damned monkey suits for the duration of this but he had a feeling that’s not what Cas meant. 

“What do you mean?” 

“We fake being in a relationship,” Cas supplied, looking right at Dean, like it wasn’t even an odd thing to suggest. “That way we can figure out whatever this thing may or may not like about the couples and attempt to emulate it. Essentially use ourselves as bait.” 

His heart did somersaults in his chest reading into the implication that Cas might be suggesting that he and Dean act as the married couple on this case. Of course his mind had already gone there the minute Sam had said only married couples were being targeted, but Dean knew that a suggestion like that wouldn’t turn out well. He’d been hiding his feelings for Cas for far longer than he wanted to think about and acting fake-married to the other man for a week, well Dean knew nothing good would come out of that. 

He tried to play it off like he wasn’t freaking out with internal conflict. 

“Cas, not sure if you’ve realized but none of us are in a relationship, let alone married. Who do you expect to go undercover? Me and you?” 

He knew it was a bad idea to even suggest it but a large part of him wanted Cas to agree to it even just out of spite for Dean being a jackass. It would suck when it was all over and they could no longer pretend to be in a relationship but at least Dean could get a chance at something he’d never have. 

His hopes were crushed as Cas immediately replied, “Of course not,” like it was idiodic for Dean to even think such a thing. He didn’t see the sense in trying to argue it but his mood had definitely gone south already. It was just made worse by the fact that Cas kept on talking. 

“Since it was my idea I’ll happily volunteer, and as for a partner I believe if I asked Rowena she’d be obliged.” 

She may have turned to their side recently and may have been a great deal of help on a lot of their cases but the fact that Cas was considering fake marrying Rowena over himself made Dean a little more defensive than was appropriate. 

“Rowena? You want to be married to Rowena?” 

Cas leveled Dean with a glare. 

“Only under the guise of this case. She’s quite kind to me and very beautiful, I believe she’d pose as an excellent spouse.” 

His words seemed to hold no room for argument but Dean tried, despite not having coherent thoughts in his brain. 

“Yeah, but—” 

“Do you have a better idea?” Cas cut in, annoyed. 

“No, but—” 

“Then it’s settled,” Cas rose up from his chair and looked towards Sam who had been actively trying to stay out of Dean and Cas’s moment. “Sam, when do we have to leave?” 

“The retreat starts next Sunday.” 

With a nod of his head Cas started walking away. “I will let Rowena know.” 

“Hold on. You’ll need the itinerary,” Sam called out after him, running towards the corner of the library to pull a piece of paper off the printer. He walked back towards Cas and handed him the list. 

“Why?” Cas asked, reading through the paper in his hands .

“Because this isn’t just a stay at a hotel. There are activities and dinners and even a masquerade ball. A duffle bag won’t work for this trip.” 

Dean was beginning to realize this wasn’t their typical scene. The word _retreat_ should have clued him in but hearing about fancy dinners and an actual ball? That was a new level of fancy that their usual monsters didn’t seem to vibe with. 

“And what the hell will we be doing?” He asked. He was already dreading hearing Sam say they’d need a whole new wardrobe for this gig. “Are we just posing as Feds or are we guests?” 

“Neither,” Sam replied suspiciously. Dean knew he wasn’t gonna like what he heard. “We’ll be working at it.” 

“Excuse me?” 

This was already shaping up to be a shitty case. First with Cas being fake married to a witch and now Sam was forcing them to actually _work_ at the damned thing? 

“Demian was able to pull some strings and get us a couple of jobs. This was before I thought Cas would be going along so this works out. You’re looking at their new massage therapist and bellhop.” 

“Great so you get to rub off some old fat dudes all day, awesome. What the fuck am I doing?” 

“You’ll be the instructor for gun skills,” Sam said with an easy shrug, the very gesture Dean knew the man followed up with something Dean wouldn’t like to hear. “And their guitar instructor.” Sam added quickly. 

“Sam—” 

“Dean, I’ve heard you play. You’re good,” His brother praised. Instinctively Dean’s eyes shot to where Cas had been, only then realizing that the angel must’ve gone back to archiving. 

Dean didn’t play guitar for anyone. Never. If he was ever at the bunker alone he’d sometimes pull it out and strum around a little, or late at night in his room he’d give it a go, but this was not something he was comfortable showing others. 

“You’ll be fine,” Sam insisted. “It’s a little over a week. We keep our heads low, find out who or what is doing this, take care of them, and we’re done. We get a paid vacation out of it, so what’s the big deal?” 

He didn’t like any of it. His skin felt prickly and he really wanted to punch something because this was not going the way he wanted it to. 

“The big deal is we’re becoming the help while Cas’s head is on the chopping block! What if we’re at one of our jobs and whatever this thing is takes him?” 

“Cas can handle it. He’ll be fine.” 

Dean didn’t doubt that Cas could handle it but the twisting anxiety inside him that he wouldn’t get to be the one at Cas’s side as Cas acted as bait was really what was gnawing at him. This wasn’t something he could talk to his brother about though. It wasn’t something he could talk to anyone about. 

“Whatever.” 

“You could suggest to him _you’d_ rather pretend to be his spouse.” 

His eyes snapped up to look at Sam, wondering where the hell that had come from. Sam had no clue how Dean felt about Cas, no one did. He held those thoughts close to his chest because in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter if a human was in love with an angel, the universe would never let it happen. 

“Don’t be stupid,” he growled. 

“Okay,” Sam’s hands went up in surrender as Dean shoved back from the table. He didn’t need to deal with Sam acting like he knew everything. 

His brother seemed indifferent to Dean’s sudden mood swing as Dean started walking back to his room. 

“Yeah, great, that’s fine. I’ll do all the research on what might be targeting all these married couples while you go off to brood.” 

“I’m not brooding.” Dean mumbled over his shoulder but he knew it came out a little too emotional. 

“Whatever you say.” 

Dean just needed a minute to collect his thoughts. Yeah, he was going to go feel sorry for himself because the single case they’d taken over the years where he could have actually pretended to be married to Cas ended up not working out in his favor. Yeah, he was going to curse the universe for making him human and unable to fairly spend his life with the one person he wanted to do so. Yeah he was going to wish that somehow the thought of him and Cas never getting to be together wouldn’t hurt so much. 

He was a measly human and he’d be gone in a matter of time. Even if he and Cas could be together, the rest of Dean’s life would be nothing compared to the eons Cas would live past him. Merely a blimp in time in the eternity Cas would be alive. How was that fair? Surely Cas wouldn’t want to be with someone who was just going to disappear from his memory a few years after Dean’s death. 

He just needed a minute and he was _not_ brooding. 

“Bitch,” he said by way of keeping his emotions in check. He was halfway down the hallway when he heard his brother shout after him. 

“Jerk!” 

Dean was not looking forward to this case.


	2. Chapter 2

Dean was in rare form. So much so that for the first time in a long time Castiel wanted to put as much distance between himself and the hunter as possible. Dean was sparing no one from his curt outbursts and passive aggressive tone and everyone in the car was on edge because of it. For the hours they’d been in the Impala and the few rest breaks they were permitted, there was significantly less talk than the angel had grown accustomed to over his time hunting with the brothers. 

If the looks Sam shared with him over the hood of the Impala, as they waited for gas to be refilled or snacks to be purchased, were anything to go by then Sam also felt that his brother’s behavior was far from the norm. They’d dealt with Dean’s moods before, it wasn’t something new, but this time it felt different and Castiel couldn’t decipher what exactly had plunged his friend into such a foul mood. 

The tension caused a collective sigh of relief to ring throughout the car as _Cardinal Springs Resort and Spa_ came into view, knowing they would no longer be cooped up in such a small space. From the looks of where the driveway was leading them, they wouldn’t be lacking on any space.

The resort was grander than any place they had stayed before. It was luxurious compared to the many motels they’d occupied over the years and from looking between Sam and Dean’s faces, Castiel could tell that both boys were slightly intimidated by the lodging. 

Though he’d been a witness to the creation of the Earth and had watched evolution, watched man create and destroy and evolve, he hadn’t experienced much of the world past what he’d experienced with the Winchesters. Even the hunts they’d been on, the locations they’d investigated, Castiel still felt as if he was only just being allowed to _see_ the world and the small beauties if possessed. 

Stepping out of the car to the greeting of the cool autumn air and the smell of fresh grass that spanned for acres around the resort, felt refreshing. 

As Sam and Dean argued with each other over who would check in, and Rowena attempted to berade the two for acting like children, Castiel took that moment to just enjoy his surroundings. 

He looked around the parking lot to the line of trees with leaves in various shades of reds, yellows, and oranges, swaying gently in the breeze. As far as his human eyes could see, the woods went on for miles in either direction, surrounding the resort in privacy. He could tell that the creators of the building had tried to make their large cement structure seem less out of place amongst all the nature, with the many plants and trees along the edges, and the rock and wood details covering the outside. 

He didn’t fully understand humans’ desire to emulate nature while remaining indoors instead of experiencing nature in its own glory, but the more time Castiel spent amongst them, he learned to just accept their oddities. 

By the time he looked back towards his companions, Dean had formed a hard scowl and was leaning against the Impala while Rowena and Sam called Cas’s name to join them at the lobby’s entrance. He knew by the sight of Dean’s furrowed brow that it would be best to give him the space the hunter seemed to desire so he followed the other two inside. 

The lobby was just as grandiose as the outside, with bright tiled floors, clean walls, and more wood and rock detailing to make it feel at one with nature. Many guests were buzzing around the place, chatting on the couches, speaking with the hostesses, and moving about the hallways towards their rooms. 

“Sam?” A voice called from near the check-in stand and Castiel’s attention turned towards the tall lanky man with short greying hair. 

Castiel knew this had to be one of the men Sam had been in contact with since recognition flooded his face and he bound over with a smile. 

“Barnes, it’s good to see you man,” Sam’s hand clasped Barnes as the two taller men greeted one another. 

“You too. Oh, do you remember my husband, Demian?” As the other man asked, a stouter man approached and smiled cheerfully at Sam. 

Sam looked as thrilled to see the couple as any. “Hey man, how’ve you been?” 

“Great,” Demian answered before looking between Sam, Castiel, and Rowena. “Is Dean here?”

“Oh he’s hanging back by the car. He’ll be in for lunch,” Sam assured. A demure cough from the witch in the group seemed to do the trick to remind Sam that Cas and Rowena were still there. “Oh, sorry, these are our friends Cas and Rowena. They’re helping us out with the… stuff.” 

“Quite the pleasure to meet you lads, but I wonder if you couldn’t have found a place less _rustic_?” 

“Rowena,” Sam cut in, rolling his eyes in annoyance. “Don’t mind her. She’s nicer than she appears… kind of.” 

Castiel felt the introductions to be mildly uncomfortable though he was eager to begin looking into the details of the hunt. However, he’d come to learn that the Winchesters were less inclined to do so in such crowded areas. Surveying the people still in the lobby, Castiel realized they’d yet to complete the task they’d walked in to do. 

“Should we check ourselves in?” He asked, looking to Sam for assurance. 

“Oh right, yeah we should.” 

“How about we let you all get checked in and we can all head over to Bo’s Barbeque for lunch,” Barnes suggested. “How’s that sound?” 

“Great, catch you in about an hour?” 

Demian waved to them all before being towed away by Barnes. “See you,” he called over his shoulder as he was whisked away. 

Sam decided last minute to book himself a room in the resort instead of sharing the cabin he and Dean had originally booked. Dean didn’t seem to care either way and stormed off with a grunt when they asked him if he’d meet everyone for lunch at noon. 

With Dean on his way to his cabin, Castiel, Sam, and Rowena relaxed a little knowing they’d have some time to settle in and not worry about Dean getting irritated over something minor. 

They headed back through the lobby with their bags and up to the third floor and around a few hallways until they came to their adjoining rooms. Castiel had never stayed in a place so clean. The room was decorated in whites and navy blues and had so much light from the large windows overlooking the golf course that Castiel almost asked if they’d accidentally been given the wrong rooms. 

Both Rowena and Sam seemed pleased with where they’d be staying for the retreat and were chatting happily between the adjoining door as Castiel stepped out onto the small balcony for a moment alone. 

He’d grown used to his thoughts wandering towards Dean. Despite understanding his own feelings and recognizing them for likely being permanent, he wondered if they’d ever stop diving to the forefront of his mind when he had moments to himself. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy thinking about Dean, in fact it was an enjoyable pastime, but he felt his time should be utilized more efficiently since his feelings were inevitably irrelevant. 

It took years before his human form started to accept that its love would not be requited. He hadn’t understood at first why being with Dean would overwhelm him with happiness yet being away from him felt akin to misery. He tried to deny that the envious hatred that twisted his core was due to watching his friend speak to beautiful women but eventually he came to stop lying to himself. 

No matter how impractical it was, Dean Winchester had captured all of Castiel, which is why he knew he was disappointed with how the case was already unfolding. It had pained him to hear how disgusted Dean had been at the thought that Castiel may want them to act as a couple for the case. It had, in fact, been Castiel’s hope but he had never been under the impression that it’d be a possibility which is why he’d already considered which of their other friends wouldn’t be as horrified to pretend to be his spouse. 

Even though he knew how much Dean wanted nothing to do with pretending to be his husband, Castiel couldn’t help but wonder how it could have all unfolded. Sam had debriefed Castiel on the situation a little, informing him that married couples generally show affection in forms of touches or kisses, but would that have been an expectation if he and Dean were pretending? 

The absence of the mere chance to have that with Dean, even just pretend, left an uncomfortable feeling of emptiness. 

He was an angel, capable of more than any human could fathom, yet he couldn’t possess the strength to relinquish himself of this feeling. Yet deep down, if he ever had the chance to do so, he’d never take it since loving Dean Winchester was the purest gift he’d ever known.

“You think you’ll be ready for lunch soon?” 

He startled despite himself, turning away from the view he’d hardly noticed. 

“Oh, Sam, I didn’t hear you.”

It was comforting the way Sam always looked at Cas so kindly, like he was pleased to be in his company. His relationship with Sam hadn’t formed as quickly as the one Castiel shared with Dean, but he still treasured it deeply. Sam was a great friend which is why it didn’t surprise him that the taller man asked, “You good?” 

On some level, Castiel knew he could go to Sam with his troubles but he felt it would be better for everyone if he continued on how he was—never speaking of his feelings for Dean. 

“Yes,” Cas replied, trying to sound cheerful. “I’m ready to go.” 

Sam frowned, “Sure. But are you sure you want to go in that?” 

Castiel assessed himself out of instinct to the scrutiny. “It’s what I always wear.” 

“I know, but we’re kind of on vacation and the restaurant is casual. Don’t you want to be comfortable?”

“I’m perfectly comfortable.” 

“Yeah, yeah, just throw on some jeans and meet me in the hall,” Sam waved off, not leaving room for Castiel to argue. 

Rowena took longer than either of the men anticipated to get ready but they got to the restaurant connected to the back of the resort around the same time as the rest of their group. 

It was a rustic looking place that smelled strongly of meat and sweet sauce, the type of place Castiel had grown semi-familiar with during his time with the Winchesters. The atmosphere was far more relaxed than the rest of the resort felt, and Castiel wagered that had to do with the majority of retreat guests not being in attendance. 

From the looks of it, most people were older in years and wore some clothes fit for outdoors and athletics. Knowing the resort hosted many golf related activities as well as had a hiking trail and cabins in the back, it seemed most likely these people were here for those activities and not the marriage retreat. 

Greetings with Demian, Barnes, and Dean went quickly and it wasn’t long before they were all following the host towards a table near the far window where less guests had been seated—courtesy of Dean’s charm. 

Once drinks and food were ordered, Barnes and Sam started pulling out manila folders with articles and police reports that they’d scrounged up in the past few weeks. 

“What do we know?” Dean asked the table, shoving a handful of cheese curds into his mouth as he looked over some of the papers. 

“There are 6 cases dating back ten years,” Sam explained. “Each victim was part of a couple that attended this retreat, all reports state they died of natural causes. Ages, races, sexualities, and location vary from victim to victim. All police statements claim the couples were happily married.” 

“If I had a dime….” 

Dean’s little joke seemed to amuse Demian but Castiel was still mildly annoyed with his friend’s attitude so he ignored him in favor of asking, “Are there any unusualities within the cases?” 

Sam and Barnes shared a look with one another before Barnes turned some files around to show the table and stated, “Some. The majority state that the victims either went off on their own during an activity or just ‘for fun.’ The timeline between some of them wandering off, the missing persons report being made, and their bodies being discovered seems questionable.” 

“How so?” Castiel asked. 

Sam jumped in with his knowledge. “Ten years ago Nadia and Roman Simpson arrived for their retreat. Three days in, Roman went with a fishing group out by the lake where on the second night he wandered off. Nadia waited five days to file a missing persons report. They found his body two weeks after.” 

Castiel glanced through the file and stored away as much information as he could. The file included an image of the two smiling cheerfully up at their camera with a scenic mountain range behind them. 

“If they were happily married, why would she wait so long to file a missing persons report,” Castiel asked. From the appearance of their photograph the two did indeed look gleeful to be with one another. 

“Exactly.” Sam pointed out, as if he’d somehow answered Castiel’s question with the affirmative. “She’s not the only spouse to do this either. Four years later Cliff and Amanda Michaelson were here. Cliff went on a morning jog five days into the retreat and never came back. Amanda didn’t report him missing for another three days.” 

Another file was passed around the table, revealing yet another beautiful and happy couple, smiling brightly for their picture. It made him wonder how people who looked so happy could choose to wait multiple days past when their spouse went missing to search for them. 

Sam continued to show them more spouses with grim fates. “What I also think is weird is that same year Cliff wasn’t the only victim. Joanna Watson’s wife Layla turned up dead the sixth night of the retreat from apparent suffocation. They reported she must’ve choked on something.” 

Demian was the one to ask, “Was that the only year two people died?” He looked over to his husband who shook his head. 

“No, two years ago two more, Isabel Martinez and Emily Kurtz. Isabel ventured off alone on a hike and Emily apparently left the hotel room in the middle of the night and never came back.” 

Rowena, whom Castiel thought had only been focused on the wine before her, looked up from the file in front of her and asked, “Does anyone know how they died? Was it a bite to the neck? A gouged out heart? Usually what causes the death leads us to answers more than when or who died.” 

On Cas’s left, Dean scoffed frustratedly but Sam nor Rowena paid him much attention. 

“The deaths vary too,” Sam explained. “Heart attack, suffocation, blood loss from head wound, drowning, and two of ‘natural causes’.” 

Something about this case was making the table abnormally tense, more so than Castiel thought could be credited to Dean’s bad temper. Even he felt a little uncertain how this would play out. There were at least fifty couples in attendance and any one of them could be a target at any given time, by any cause of death. The case already seemed to not sway in their favor. 

“So we have no apparent MO, no similarities between the couples, different causes of death, and a random timeline. What _do_ we know?” Dean asked, to which Castiel felt he could answer. 

“They were all married couples and came to this particular retreat.” 

“Obviously. So whatever it is targets married couples and we’re at a marriage retreat with dozens of married couples. Should be easy.” 

“Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing all this?” Rowena asked with mild annoyance. 

“With the causes of death I doubt it’s a vampire, werewolf, or witch,” Barnes chimed in. He had a small notebook in front of him filled with hand written notes. “I’m thinking since these people go wandering off that something is luring them? A siren or a shifter?” 

Castiel could see where those ideas were coming from but he had to ask, “Did their blood tests show anything that’d say siren?” 

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Sam answered. “We’ll just have to dig. I brought as many of Bobby’s old books as I could.” 

“Enough of this,” Dean protested. He still had the same scowl on his face he’d been wearing since they’d discussed taking this case. “We can talk later. I want to enjoy my lunch.” 

Castiel understood the apologetic look Sam sent to Demian and Barnes for Dean’s behavior, and he too offered them what he hoped was a gentle smile. 

It surprised no one when Dean asked for a third beer. Not even Sam wanted to bother arguing Dean out of that one. 

He knew the likelihood of getting Dean alone and getting his friend to open up about what had been bothering him was slim, but he hoped he’d get the chance to at least try. It bothered him, inexplicably, to feel Dean upset with him, with or without explanation. When Dean was upset it meant less time together, less chats, less small moments where Cas could catch the smallest sliver of a smile on Dean’s face. Their lives were difficult and often burdensome and weighed heavily on the Winchester brother’s shoulders, but the rare moments of seeing them relaxed and carefree and willing to joke around were some of Cas’s favorites. 

He was interrupted in his thoughts by Barnes who was looking mildly out of place. Demian beside him seemed to have the same appearance and it could be assumed it came down to Dean’s grimacing at his beer. 

“Castiel, Rowena, are you two ready for tonight?” 

“Tonight?” Castiel asked, confused. 

“The welcome dinner,” Barnes explained. 

The brief glance he’d taken at the itinerary Sam printed for them did mention a welcome dinner, not that Castiel understood what that meant besides a dinner where they welcome their guests. 

“Oh, right. I believe so,” he answered. He knew he’d likely rely on Rowena to tell him what to do and what he needed to wear for the night, so he wasn’t too worried about not being prepared. 

“Reviews say it’s actually nice,” Demian raved. “They have a live band and some speakers to talk about marriage and all its glory. I’ve read it’s usually really funny.” 

“Wait, there’s a dinner tonight?” Dean suddenly asked, looking between all of them like they’d been conspiring against him. 

“Oh, yeah, but it’s only for the… couples,” Barnes answered, realizing too quickly he should’ve kept quiet. 

“Then what the hell are we supposed to do?” Dean asked, rounding on his brother, his voice a little too loud for the restaurant. 

“Dean, we’re working. We’re on cleanup.” 

“Like hell we are!” 

“Dude, don’t.” 

“No. I’m here to kill a monster. Not pick up after some snotty rich folk.” This was Dean’s pissed voice, the one he used when he’d dwelled too long on something irking him. It was no shock when he shoved back from the table and walked off towards the back patio of the restaurant. 

Without thinking, Castiel jumped up from his seat to follow. The back of the restaurant led to a path towards the cabins and Dean was already walking down the gravel path when Cas caught up to him and grabbed him by the arm. 

“Dean, hold on.” 

“What do you want?” Dean spat, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but talking to Castiel. 

“I just wanted to see if you’re okay.” 

“I’m fine. We done now?” 

“Something is clearly upsetting you,” Castiel protested. He hated watching Dean like this, helpless to do anything. “I just thought I could help.” 

“Well, you can’t. Have fun at dinner with your wife.” 

“You know she’s not—” 

Dean scowled as he walked away. “Whatever man.” 

Some part of him wanted to chase after Dean just one more time, and demand Dean tell him what was upsetting him but the fear of Dean pushing him away even further kept him planted where he was on the path, watching as Dean disappeared out of sight. 

He took a moment to collect himself before he turned back towards the restaurant where his friends were talking in hushed tones to one another across the table. 

“I take it that went well,” Sam said with a grimace. 

“Splendidly.”

They both knew Dean’s attitudes so Castiel was grateful when Sam patted him on the shoulder as he stood. 

“Sorry man, but I gotta go meet up with the manager and see what I’m supposed to be doing. If I don’t see you guys tonight, I’ll see you for breakfast in the morning.” 

The rest of the table also took that as their cue and all stood up from the table to say their farewells from one another. Barnes and Demian claimed they were going to check out the indoor pool, Rowena wanted to spend some time at the spa, and Castiel decided he’d go for a walk around the premises until it was time to get ready for the welcome dinner. 

His walk felt like it’d been only minutes, though it’d actually been hours by the time Rowena was calling him to come back to the room. From the time on his phone’s screen he only had roughly twenty minutes to be at the dinner so he hurriedly walked back towards the resort. 

Back in his room, Rowena had set out a black suit that looked similar to the ones Sam and Dean wore as FBI but this one had a black shirt paired with it. Not caring any which way, he quickly stripped out of his usual attire and shrugged on the fitted suit. 

He didn’t bother to look in the mirror, not that he’d be able to assess if what he was wearing flattered him at all, so he sat at the edge of the bed and waited for Rowena to come out of the bathroom. 

She didn’t make him wait too long before she walked out in a long pink satin dress and her hair curled and tied up at her temples. The attire made her look more youthful and innocent than her regular appearance and Castiel assumed the change was deliberate. 

“You look lovely,” he commented, knowing she liked to be told such things. 

“I do, don’t I?” She asked with a smile. “You look handsome as well, dear husband.” 

It felt wrong hearing her say that but he knew they had to keep up appearances. If he had to play a devoted husband, he would do his part. 

“Shall we?”

As they stepped into the hallway, Castiel offered her his arm in hopes that he was doing the correct thing. It was something he’d watched in some of the movies Dean played, so he assumed it was a good move. 

Together he and Rowena made it to the elevator and into the lobby where they were directed to one of the several ballrooms the hotel had. There, they were able to scan the room and see Demian and Barnes waving them over with smiles on their faces. 

He knew he was still not the greatest at interacting with strangers, and to him Demian and Barnes were just that, so with a great sign, Castiel donned his most convincing smile and led Rowena that way. As they approached, Castiel noticed the two gentlemen standing next to another couple, a male and female. The male was roughly a few inches shorter than himself and the female was about Rowena’s height with auburn hair a few shades darker than Rowena. 

It unsettled him a smidge to be meeting strangers but he tried to keep a pleasant face. 

“Relax, I’ll speak for you dearie,” Rowena said under her breath beside him. 

“Castiel, Rowena, I’d like you to meet our friends Thomas and Rose. We met them earlier today at the pool, thought we’d invite them to sit with us tonight.” 

Thomas stuck his hand out first in a greeting, and Castiel immediately reciprocated, shaking the bearded man’s hand just as firmly before turning towards Rose and doing the same. 

“It’s nice to meet you both.” 

The group of them walked through the crowd of couples in order to find a table to accommodate them all and sat down once they found one with a superior view to the small stage in the middle. 

Demian, Barnes, Rose, and Thomas seemed to be easily making conversation with one another and Castiel was grateful that Rowena kept his attention by pointing out and whispering to him some couples she sensed could be ‘perfect murder victims.’ Whatever that meant. 

By the time they’d all decided to order some drinks from the bar and made their way back to their table, Rose seemed interested in both Castiel and Rowena, leaving her husband and Demian to chat while she leaned over him and spoke to the witch. 

“How long have you two been together?” 

“Oh, he only just managed to tie me down a year ago,” Rowena said with a laugh, placing her small hand overtop Castiel’s on the table. “You see, I never imagined myself a married woman but my angel here was just too precious to resist.” 

Rose looked at Castiel with a smile, clearly eating up Rowena’s words. He felt awkward not saying anything and found himself smiling tightly and saying, “Thank you… wife.” 

“Oh you. Such a jokester.” A small squeeze to his hand let him know he wasn’t doing a great job acting. Rowena thankfully was smart and quickly drew the conversation away from themselves. “What about you two darlings?” 

Rose’s eyes lit up as she spoke about her husband. “We’ve been together since high school. We actually got married here a few years ago.” 

“How lovely. Do you come to this retreat every year?” 

“No, this is our first time. We thought it’d be nostalgic to come back here for the retreat. We wanted to a while ago but now just seemed like the right time.” 

Rose turned to Barnes, “And you two are here for your anniversary, right?” 

“It’s actually our one year wedding anniversary but twelve years since we started dating,” Barnes explained. 

Castiel wasn’t particularly knowledgeable on human relationships and courting but even to him twelve years seemed like a particularly long time to wait to be wed. He found himself clarifying if he’d heard that number correctly. 

“Twelve years?” 

“Can I ask why you waited so long to get married?” Rose asked, confirming that Castiel had heard correctly. 

Something seemed to make Barnes a little uncomfortable but when Demian reached to grab his hand, Barnes seemed more willing to open up. 

“Yeah, uhm, we were going to, about six years ago but I got really sick. Cancer, actually. And it took a lot of our energy and time and money for me to beat it so we just pushed off the wedding indefinitely. I was told that I was in complete remission a little over a year ago and we couldn’t wait any longer.” 

The look on Demian’s face as he stared at his husband struck something deep within Cas. The sight of so much love and heartbreak combined into one single glance was almost palpable. He knew human lives were fragile but he also knew from experience that watching someone you love come close to death was not an easy thing to go through and he was grateful these two were able to overcome it. 

Rose looked at the two men with round eyes, genuinely expressing, “I’m so glad you’re okay.” 

“So are we.” 

A microphone’s feedback suddenly blasted through the room, pulling everyone’s attention to the stage where an attractive older man was standing in a flashy suit, smiling at everyone with blindingly white teeth. 

“Welcome couples to our fifteenth annual Cardinal Springs Couples Retreat!” The man said, too loud with the microphone in front of him. Still, everyone at their tables clapped for him. 

“I want to take a moment to thank you all for being here. My name is Richard Loughlin and I’m the proud owner of this establishment. I enjoy this retreat year after year, getting to see such beautiful couples enjoying some of our best weather in this state.” 

Castiel took the cues of everyone around him and continued clapping for this man, though he was doing nothing more than speaking. 

“None of this would be possible, though, without our wonderful event planner, Megan Erin. She’s put on an incredible retreat for you all, so please let's give her a round of applause.” 

More clapping ensued and Castiel about had enough of this man speaking already. His smile seemed to be a permanent feature on his face and he looked too eager to hear people clapping for his words than Castiel felt was needed. 

“We sent out the itinerary weeks ago with our list of amazing events and activities you all get to participate in this year so please remember to sign up if you haven’t already. Megan will have a booth in the hallways during tonight’s dinner. But before I get booed off the stage I’d like to give a toast.” 

As Castiel looked around for the first course of bread, Rowena nudged a glass of liquid into his hand that he dutifully raised into the air with the rest of the crowd.

“To life, to love, to marriage, and to all the fun we’ll have together.” 

He felt completely out of his element as he and everyone around him clattered their glasses together and drank the bubbly drink. Suddenly trays of food were being ushered around with people asking him which dish he’d prefer. He wound up with a vegetarian option despite not knowing what the waitress was offering him, while it appeared the majority of his table mates had steak or chicken. 

Once food was out, more drinks in the form of wine and champagne were brought to the tables and a live band started playing up on the stage. At every table people were mingling and eating and Castiel tried to notice if anything was out of the ordinary. 

“You said your name was Castiel, right?” 

Cas turned to look at the woman on his right, Rose, who was leaning in towards him with a bright smile. Her husband was talking to Demian on the other side of her while Rowena and Barnes were chatting to Castiel’s left at the small round table. 

“Yes, it is,” Castiel replied kindly, “but you can call me Cas.” 

“You seem a little out of your element here,” she noted with a smile. 

He nodded in agreement and looked around the room at the people around them, laughing and consuming more and more alcohol. “I do perhaps feel a little out of place. Dinners like these aren’t something I usually frequent.” 

“No? Your wife seems to be right at home here,” Rose pointed out. Cas turned to look at Rowena who had another glass of wine in her hand and was dramatically telling a story from her youth. 

She did seem far more relaxed with these strangers than Castiel ever thought he could be. He realized though that since Rowena and he were meant to be married, this was supposed to be his type of place as well. 

“Oh, yes. It wasn’t until our nuptials that I started to partake in events like this with her. Before I was generally at home often.” 

Rose smiled at him. “It’s nice that you’re willing to do the things she loves.” 

“I believe that’s important to a marriage.” 

A dessert bar opened up on the far end of the dining room and as many of the couples wandered over to check out the food, including most of their table, Castiel stayed behind with Rose who seemed more interested in conversation with Cas than waiting in line for mini sweets. 

“You said you two’ve been married a year?” 

“Just about, yes,” Castiel confirmed, hoping he had that detail correct. Not for the first time he wished he and Dean could be pretending to be a couple. He knew far more about the hunter to convince others he was a good spouse, but with Rowena there were so many things he didn’t know. 

“How long have you two been together?” Rose asked.

Castiel didn’t know what he was supposed to say. 

“We met about three years ago,” he supplied. He looked over his shoulder to see if Rowena would be returning soon to help him out of his fumbling, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. 

“Was it love at first sight?” 

“Oh no,” Castiel confirmed, with a little too much distaste in his voice. He tried for a smooth recovery after that. “We didn’t get along at first, but we’ve grown together since then.” 

“I love hearing love stories. Can I ask what made you realize she was the one?” 

What Castiel very much did not want to do was answer that question, so when Demian came back with a full plate of chocolates and other fancy desserts Castiel had no name for, he was grateful. 

“Hey, is that Dean?” Demian asked once he sat down. He was pointing behind Castiel. 

Turning around, Castiel realized that Dean was, in fact, acting as a busser for the event. He even seemed to be trying to put on a relatively pleasant smile, though Castiel could tell it didn’t quite reach his eyes. His friend was carrying a bucket as he took people’s empty glasses and plates off their tables but seemed to be working on the opposite side of the room than where they were seated. 

“It appears so.” 

“Sam must’ve talked to him,” Demian concluded at the same time Castiel thought it. Rowena and Barnes arrived back and noticed who they were staring at. 

“You guys know him?” Rose asked. “That waiter?” 

“Oh yes, he’s uh,” Castiel failed to come up with a response before Rowena chimed in. 

“My nephew. My sister had her boys very young, only fifteen when she had him. It was such a scandal. His brother is here somewhere as well, she had him at nineteen. Can you imagine having two kids under the age of twenty?” 

Rowena’s words seemed to steer Rose into a conversation and distract her enough that Castiel could get up out of his seat to go speak to his friend. 

“Dean?” Cas asked as he’d just followed his friend near the kitchen doors. 

“What do you want Cas?” He asked without looking up. “I’m working.” 

“I know, I’m sorry. I just wanted to see if you were doing better.” 

Castiel couldn’t see Dean’s face but he knew from the movement of Dean’s head that the other man had rolled his eyes. 

“I told you I was fine then and I’m fine now.” 

“Right.” 

It stung being shut down once again when all he wanted to do was help, but it was something he was learning to get used to with the hunter. 

“Do you need something or can I get back to work?” 

“I apologize,” Castiel vocalized, though he wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for but he knew he wasn’t wanted at the moment. “I’ll let you get back to it.” 

“Rowena looks nice tonight,” Dean said as Castiel turned to walk away. It made Castiel pause and look at his friend with confusion. 

Did Dean find Rowena attractive? Was this something Castiel should’ve known? 

“Uh, yes? She does,” he agreed. Dean’s eyes were blank though he smiled and looked over towards the table Castiel had been seated with their friends. 

“So does that girl you’ve been talking to.” 

“Rose?” Castiel questioned, looking to where the woman was speaking to her husband at their table. 

“That her name?” 

“It is. Though I don’t know what the relevance of that is.” 

“Nothin’,” Dean shrugged off, his smile coming off more disgusted than anything. “I’ve got work to do. See ya.” 

Again, as Dean walked away Cas felt himself compelled to chase after his friend and fix whatever was happening between them but he didn’t know what he’d even say.


	3. Chapter 3

He hated this stupid fucking case already but he hated these couples more. 

If he had to tell one more husband that they were not in fact allowed to point the guns at their wives, even if they were just trying to scare them to be funny, because yes there were real bullets in these guns… he was going to commit murder. And if one more husband threw a tantrum because his wife was a better shot than him and then belittled her into believing it was just beginners luck… 

He couldn’t with these people. 

The only upside was not many people were wanting to trek down near the woods where the shooting range was set up so he had quite a few lulls between the groups of couples visiting his activity. 

He’d eaten lunch by himself in his cabin since he knew his brother and Cas were probably annoyed with him and his moods but he just couldn’t help it. This whole case and how everything had already played out was bothering him. Watching Cas get to dress up and act like a happily married man to someone who wasn’t Dean, was not settling well with him at all. He knew he needed to keep his distance because he was bringing everyone down. So if that meant hiding out in the cabin and dealing with dumb ass people who thought guns were toys, then so be it. 

Only, he would never be so lucky. 

For his last session of the day, Castiel, Rowena, Barnes, and Demian showed up with another couple. There were two other couples already there with him so he at least had the alibi that he was working with them so that he didn’t have to immediately confront the group. 

Once he made sure the two original couples were set and shooting safely, he moved over towards his friends and attempted to make light of the safety spiel he was required to give them. 

“Hey, I’m Dean for the ones who don’t know me and I’ll be working on gun skills with you. First we gotta talk safety: the guns are real, the bullets are real, keep your finger off the trigger unless you’re pointing to one of the targets on the range, keep the firearm pointed downwards and away from anyone or anything of value, and wear the eye glasses and headphones so you don’t hurt yourself. Go ahead and step up to a station and put on your safety wear but do not touch anything until I tell you.” 

He could do this easily, remove himself from familiarities and do the job he needed to do. He had to avoid Cas’s pitiful looks and Rowena’s glare, but that wasn’t out of the norm. 

Once they were all ready at their stations, Dean went over some tips and how to actually safely use the gun, taking a minute to show off his own skills a little. It wasn’t long before the couples were each taking turns and practicing what he had to say. 

Barnes and Demian were unsurprisingly not very great but next to them, the couple they’d arrived with were. 

“Damn, I’d say you’re a natural at this,” Dean said to the woman, impressed. Her husband grinned up at Dean with a proud smile. 

“Hell yeah she is. We go shooting sometimes and it pisses some of my buddies off that she’s a better shot than all of ‘em.” 

“It’s nothing,” the woman said with a shrug. 

“You’re not so bad yourself either. Maybe next year they could take you on as an instructor.” Dean said to the man. “Oh, hey, what’s your guys’ names?” he decided to ask since he was fairly certain these were the two sitting with Cas and Rowena and dinner the night before. 

“Oh I’m Rose.” 

“I’m Tom.” 

“Thomas, look at them,” Rose interrupted, nodding her head towards something behind Dean. 

Turning, Dean was affronted with the sight of his angel with his arms around Rowena, leaning close to her as he steadied her hands and helped her aim. 

Without thinking he marched over to them, “Hey, back up. That’s not safety protocol.” 

“They’re doing it over there,” Castiel pointed out, looking at the two couples a few stations down who were, indeed, shooting in the same way. 

“Yeah, well, you two need to cut it out. That’s not how you teach someone to shoot.” 

He knew he’d said the wrong thing when Castiel lowered his voice and said, “Dean, it’s quite literally how you taught me.” 

“Yeah well, I said you’re not doing that here. So you’re not.” 

“Dean…” 

“Alright folks,” Dean interrupted, wanting to avoid that particular conversation with Cas. “That’s all the time you have down here, I’ve got to start getting this all cleaned up so if you’d put the safeties on and set them on your stations, I’d appreciate it. Dinner will be served in the banquet hall at five thirty. 

Once everyone started walking back, it didn’t surprise Dean that Castiel stuck back and started helping him check that the guns were unloaded and put away in the carrying case. 

Dean thought Cas would try and ask him what was wrong again, and he was prepared to shoot him down… again, but that question never came. Instead, they worked in quiet union, getting everything taken care of quickly. 

“You didn’t have to help,” Dean mentioned, mostly to have something to say. Cas must’ve understood—he always understood. 

“I know,” he said, and carried on with picking up the few pieces the couples had left at the stations. 

Just being in Cas’s company, even though they weren’t actually doing much of anything, already made Dean feel a hundred times more himself and at ease. Cas had that effect on him though, almost always had. He was Dean’s anchor even when the hunter knew he could never say such things. An angel didn’t need some pesky human holding him back just because Dean felt better when Cas was around. At least, for now, Cas didn’t seem to mind hanging around with them, despite giving Castiel every reason for him to abandon them forever. 

“Thanks man,” he said as Cas handed him the last set of goggles. He knew from the look his friend was giving him that Cas wanted to ask him what was going on, but the angel refrained and gave a half-smile. 

“I’ll see you at dinner,” he said, backing away from Dean and heading towards the trail back to the resort. 

Watching him walk away, knowing there was something off between them right now suddenly didn’t settle well with Dean and he jogged a little to catch up. 

“Cas, wait,” he said, feeling a little nervous as his friend turned to him with open and waiting eyes. “Look, I’m sorry I’ve been a little… whatever. I’m just… dealing with some stuff but I’m good. I just want to gank this son of a bitch and be done with it, you know?” 

It wasn’t entirely truthful but it was better than telling his friend that Dean wasn’t handling seeing him pretend to be married to a witch for this case. 

Either Cas believed him or didn’t choose to question it further. “I understand,” he replied. 

“We good?” 

They’d been through a lot, the two of them, but somehow kept coming out the other side. 

Cas must’ve been thinking along the same lines because he smiled a little at the corner of his mouth. “We were never not good.” 

There was so much Dean wanted to say, always wanted to say but never could manage. Instead he just looked at his friend, willing the angel to understand. And perhaps he did, or perhaps he didn’t but dinner was about to start and Dean still needed to get the guns back to the safe and get cleaned up. 

“I’ll see you at dinner,” Cas announced. 

“Save me a seat?” 

The small head tilt made something flutter inside him as Cas asked, “Beside me?” 

“Yeah.” 

Maybe it was knowing that they were able to clear the air a little, but Castiel looked almost happy with Dean’s request. 

“I will,” the angel promised before waving a little and walking off. 

Dean let himself watch Cas walk away and wished, not for the first time, that things could be different. He still couldn’t understand why Cas would choose to give up his ties with heaven just to hang around two hunters, but not having Cas around seemed unfathomable. If only Dean could be more, could be better and more deserving to even just be Cas’s friend, let alone a lover, he’d do it. 

But he was human and stupid, and fragile, and his clock was ticking faster than most average human’s did and none of it was fair. Their whole life wasn’t fair. At least he had time with Cas now, and he’d accept it gratefully. 

It didn’t take him too much longer to get squared away and ready for dinner, so it wasn’t before long that he was making the walk back up to the main resort. Thankfully, he only had to work as cleanup on the nights of the larger parties so the rest of the weeknights he’d get to eat with his friends. 

It appeared he was the last one there since his brother waved him over to where Cas, Rowena, Barnes, and Demian were all already sitting. 

“Hey, man it’s a buffet but you need to grab your plate from here first.” 

“What? Only one plate?” 

“Most civilised humans don’t need three plates at a time,” Rowena said with a patronizing voice. He knew it was just the way she teased so he glared at her and grabbed his plate. 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

He created a mountain of food on his plate at the buffet and made his way back to the table, where Cas had already reserved the seat beside himself for Dean. With a warm feeling in his stomach he sat down next to his friend and listened in to the conversation they were all having. 

“I’m telling you, hair everywhere. Down his back, over his shoulders, everywhere.” 

“I’m eating,” Dean announced with disgust, looking at his brother who was clearly roiled up about hair. 

“Sorry! It’s just one of the guests I had to massage today... “ Sam explained with a shiver. He seemed to not want to gross them out more than he already had because he switched the conversation to the couples, “What activities did you guys do today?” 

“We mostly all stuck together and tried ballroom dancing this morning, then shooting with Dean.” 

“Ballroom dancing?” Dean asked, looking at Cas who gave him a grave smile. Dean couldn’t picture his friend having any sort of rhythm or coordination for dancing, but then again his coordination with combat was always impressive… 

“Yes, and tomorrow we’re planning to do massages in the morning and wine tasting in the afternoon,” Castiel shared, looking less than pleased with the activity suggestions. Dean didn’t blame him though, dancing, massages, wine tastings… none of that felt like anything Castiel would be interested in. Dean figured the only reason Rowena agreed to gun skills was because Dean was working it. 

“I do hope I’ll be able to request you as my masseuse, Samuel,” Rowene said, looking at Sam with a sultry smile making Dean’s brother roll his eyes and shovel a forkful of salad in his mouth. 

Since they were mostly alone and Dean was less in a bad mood, he figured it was a good time to bring up the case, since he’d been avoiding it enough already. 

“Let’s talk shop for a little?” He suggested, gauging everyone’s moods. When nearly everyone nodded their head in agreement, he lowered his voice. 

“If this monster is going after happy couples only, who do we think are the happiest and most functional ones here? If they’re going after couples who appear happy but are just putting on a facade, who do we suspect?” 

They all collectively looked around the room and tried to hone in on anyone they were already suspecting. Dean had a few couples in mind from gun skills, especially the ones who bickered more than others, but he’d need to watch them a little more to see if it was just a fluke. 

“From what I saw today,” Sam started, “That older man with the longer beard and his wife seemed genuinely happy, so did the two women.” He pointed to a couple sharing a soft serve ice cream and smiling at one another. Dean hadn’t met either of those couples though so he couldn’t say much else. 

Sam then nodded over to another table near the window with a woman crossing her arms and looking out the window. 

“Her with the really blonde hair and her husband were arguing the whole massage, I think her name is Maddie.” 

“They came to the range and were arguing too,” Dean noted, remembering how much the woman kept telling her husband to ‘cut it out.’ “Most were actually.” 

“Our friends, Thomas and Rose, they seem happy,” Demian said. 

“I agree. They’d be a target if that’s what this thing gets off on,” Dean agreed. “You guys too though,” he said to Barnes and Demian. 

“That’d be best case scenario though wouldn’t it? Lead them to us?” 

“Not in our book. If we can get them on Cas and Rowena’s tail, I’d be more comfortable,” said Sam followed by, “We just need to know what it's looking for. If it’s happily married, we need to play it up, but if it’s not? How will we know?” 

“We’ll just keep digging,” Dean said with a shrug. “Something is bound to happen sooner or later, we just need to keep our eyes peeled.”


	4. Chapter 4

He chose not to wake Rowena or interrupt whatever Sam might’ve been doing in the adjoining room and wasn’t certain if Dean would welcome him this early in the morning either. Instead, Castiel wandered out of his room to spend some time in the dining area in order to observe some of the couples. He was never hungry, being an angel and all, but knew to not look ‘creepy’ he should have a cup of coffee and a stale pastry with him at his table. 

He settled away from most of the other guests, his back to a corner, and began looking around. Only three other couples were there so far, one elderly couple he’d yet to interact with and two younger ones who were dressed for exercise. There were quite a few solo guests filtering in and out, grabbing a drink or something to snack on before leaving, so he only had the three couples to focus on. So far, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. 

He focused on attempting to sip at his coffee in regular intervals, basically only doing so when the man a few tables away from him drank from his own. 

He was focused on observing so much that he didn’t notice someone walking up next to him until she was brightly greeting him with, “Good morning, would it be okay if I joined you?” 

“Oh, Rose, good morning,” He supplied as kindly as he could. “Please, sit.” 

Rose looked more casual than he’d seen her in the other days in just a t-shirt and jeans, which made Castiel feel more secure in his own outfit choice, which was essentially the same. 

“Thank you,” Rose said as she sank into the chair. “You’re up early. Where’s your wife?” 

It took Castiel half a beat to understand who Rose meant but he quickly covered his pause with a cough and explained, “She’s never been a morning person. I’ve learned it’s best if she’s left to sleep until she’s ready to be awoken.” 

“Sounds like me.” 

Not knowing the woman well, Castiel felt it wasn’t his place to agree or disagree with her statement. Instead he took another sip of coffee and asked, “Why are you up this early? Where is Thomas?” 

“He went on a hike. I was going to go with them but twisted my ankle a little getting out of the shower this morning, so I thought I should take it easy. I can always go in a few days.” 

She excused herself to grab herself a plate of the continental breakfast, in which she promised to bring Castiel a bagel with grape jam. 

“You seem to have a lot of friends here,” she noted as she sat back down next to him. 

“Yes,” he agreed. “Demian and Barnes told us about the retreat and we thought we’d ‘check it out.’” 

“Your two friends, the tall ones? They just happen to work here as well?” 

“Oh no. They’re actually, we’re uhm,” he stopped himself from saying they were roommates since he wasn’t sure he and his ‘wife’ should be still living with two adult men. “We’re family but they travel a lot for their jobs. They’re on leave right now so they thought they’d take advantage of free lodging here and tag along.” 

“Seems like you’re all close.” 

“We are,” Castiel confirmed. He tried to continue looking around the room but every time his eyes moved away from Rose, she filled the silence with another new question. Human conversation was quite taxing, he decided. 

“And your friend, Dean, is it?” He still wasn't adept at reading people but he felt certain there was a peculiar look in her eye. 

“Yes?” 

“Are you two close? I couldn’t help but notice the two of you arguing.” 

For a moment he wondered why she’d been watching them but realized that only minutes ago he’d been watching the people in the very room they were in. According to Dean, people watching was a common pastime for others. 

“Oh, yes we’re fairly close,” he confirmed. “We’d just gotten in a disagreement before the trip but we settled it.” 

“Do you two argue often?” 

“Occasionally.” 

“I’m so sorry,” Rose declared suddenly. “I’ve been known to be nosy. You can shut me up whenever.” 

“It’s quite alright.” 

She took a few bites of her breakfast sandwich before asking, “Are you having fun so far?” 

He didn’t think of the retreat as fun, though his ideals of fun were more skewed than most. Fun to Castiel meant hanging out with Dean and hearing the other man make jokes that Castiel didn’t understand and cracking up once he figured them out. He’d admittedly not done any of that on this trip and therefore, he wasn’t particularly having fun. 

However, he knew that answer was the absolute wrong one to come out of a happily married man’s mouth, and therefore he smiled and tried to pretend to be sincere. 

“I am. The selection of activities is quite broad.”

“Right? Tom and I are taking one on how to make charcuterie boards and one on how to fence.” 

He’d read through the list of classes offered as one of his sources of reading material the night prior, and Rose’s preferences sounded much more appealing to Castiel than what Rowena insisted they would attend. 

“I believe Rowena and I are doing massages and wine tastings,” he grumbled. 

“Oh! You have to tell me about the wine tastings,” Rose exclaimed excitedly. “I’ve never done one before but everyone claims they’re so much fun.” 

“Are you a ‘wine person’?” He asked, curiously. 

According to Rowena being a ‘wine person’ was a ‘thing’ and it was quite coveted to be one. She seemed to know much about it though he felt like it was just another reason people used to get inebriated without guilt. 

“No, I hate it,” Rose replied with a smirk. “But watching people get drunk and stupid? That’s my kind of fun.” 

From Castiel’s experience he’d mostly watched people get drunk and angry, but there had been instances when Dean or Sam got particularly drunk and became very comedic. He was only left to assume this is the type of intoxicated Rose preferred to watch. 

They sat for a little while longer in silence before Castiel figured it was a better use of his time to try and get as much information about their case as he could from the people he came in contact with. It was his job as the undercover ‘husband.’ 

“May I ask you something?”

“Oh? Sure?” 

“When we heard about this place, Rowena looked it up on the Google, and she found that there were some deaths that had happened. Do you know about those?” 

“Only what I remember seeing in the news,” Rose answered. “Why? Is something weird about them? I always thought there was something weird about them.” 

She squinted at him in intrigue. Castiel wondered what an outsider would think weird about a case like this. 

“You did?” 

“Yeah. I mean, there _are_ instances where people do go missing or die while on vacation—did you know that there are morgues on cruise ships? Anyway, it just seemed weird to me that one place could have so many people die of natural causes or wander off during their vacation. You know?” 

“That’s what I’ve been wondering as well.”

She lowered her voice to a whisper, as if other people were listening in on them conspiring about the resort. 

“You think something’s happening? Do you think there’s something here that’s making them sick or something?” 

“I’m not sure, but it does intrigue me.” 

Even though she couldn’t give him any useful information, Castiel thought it beneficial to have someone on the lookout for anything unusual. It was always better to have an extra set of eyes, right? 

“If you happen to hear or see anything, let me know. I have friends who are capable of handling such situations,” he told her. 

“I will,” Rose promised. She then perked up and looked up over Cas’s head and called out, “Oh, Tom! Over here!” 

When her husband made no move to walk their way, Rose frowned and turned to Cas. 

“Hey I should go. He looks like something’s bothering him. I’ll see you later, okay?” 

“Okay, I hope everything is alright.” 

She nodded with a tight smile before taking off after her husband who had walked the opposite way. 

Castiel decided that he’d spent enough time downstairs and left his unfinished coffee cup on the table. By the amount of people entering the dining area, he assumed it was around the time guests were meant to start heading off to their first activity of the day. He decided he would be brave and let Rowena know it was time for her to wake up. 

After waking his fake-wife surprisingly easily, they made it to their scheduled time slot at the spa. It smelled of fragrant oils the moment they’d entered and was decorated with cream colored tiles, cream colored everything really. There were guests all about the room in plush white robes with green colored muck on their faces and flutes of murky champagne in their hand. He wasn’t the best judge of the quality of places but he believed this spa wasn’t so bad. Even the room Sam and his coworker escorted them to was nicely decorated with lovely music playing from the speakers. 

It was when he was told to strip down to only his briefs and lay on a table that Castiel realized he wasn’t particularly fond of massages, especially ones that meant his friends were in the room as a stranger rubbed lotion into his skin. The women kept apologizing for hurting him and Castiel didn’t know how to tell her that he wasn’t hurt but did _not_ enjoy her touching him without sounding rude. 

Rowena on the other hand, was uncomfortably vocal with her sounds of pleasure as Sam worked on her muscles, which was obviously meant to make everyone uncomfortable. Castiel (as well as Sam) endured an hour of this before the session was over and he was allowed to shrug on the jeans and soft t-shirt he had found in his duffle that morning. 

He didn’t look at Sam as they left, knowing the other man probably had a smug smile on his face. 

Wine tasting was an interesting event as well, yet less uncomfortable than the massage. He was already vaguely familiar with human’s interest in mixing various flavors (Dean loved to try different nuts and beer combinations) but he didn’t care for their boasting about their knowledge of notes, pairings, and something people kept calling legs. 

Though the wine experience was better than the massage, Castiel still found himself tuning out the sounds of everyone around him and lingering on the scenery far past the resort. It took him awhile to realize that he was looking out towards the woods where he knew the shooting range was located, where Dean was with various new couples teaching them and helping aim and shoot. 

The idea brought him back to the time Dean had done the same for him, a point Dean seemed to be ashamed of if his words from the previous day were anything to go by. Castiel, though, kept that memory in his mind and held onto it tightly. 

He remembers having a day, just the two of them down in the bunker’s shooting range, joking around about how poorly Castiel could shoot, though he could articulate every facet of a gun’s mechanism. Dean swore that it was largely correlated to skill and told Castiel, in no uncertain terms, that if he couldn’t shoot then he’d never be a true hunter. 

So he practiced, for nearly an hour, taking Dean’s advice and improving but never quite perfecting it. When his friend had declared that he was damn near hopeless, he’d approached Castiel and demanded that if he couldn’t learn from hearing Dean’s flawless directions, Dean would have to show him the old fashioned way. That’s when Dean’s arms encircled him from behind and slid along his arms, the hunter’s hands wrapping warmly around Castiel’s own. 

Dean’s voice dropped to a lower volume, in order to not be too loud in Castiel’s ear and his speech slowed down in a calming manner as he explained exactly how Castiel needed to hold the gun. 

Castiel missed the first shot on accident but realized that Dean wasn’t bound to let go if he was still inadequate at shooting. It may have not been completely honest to mess up here and there just to keep the feeling of Dean’s warmth against him, but the chances he got to be close to his hunter and feel that heartbeat so steady against him, he couldn’t let it go too soon. 

Sometimes he felt that he’d give anything to have more with Dean, to be able to reach out and touch him when he felt like it, or pull Dean into his arms when he grew lonely. There had been times when he thought, perhaps, Dean felt the same in return but Castiel soon realized it was only wishful thinking on his part. Dean could never love him in such a way, but he could love him as a friend and family and Castiel knew that needed to be good enough, even when it ached. 

“Castiel?” 

Cas drew himself from his thoughts and peered up at Rowena. She was looking at him with a warmness he rarely saw from her. 

“Yes?” 

“Are you ready to head to dinner?” 

He appreciated how kind she was when the two of them were alone, somehow feeling like she understood him without ever having to explain himself to her. 

“Oh, yes. I apologize,” he said, feeling guilty for not paying her much attention. But she waved him off with a smile and patted his cheek affectionately. 

“No need, darling.” 

As they walked through the hotel hallways towards the dining hall, Rowena kept her arm looped through his and lowered her voice to whisper to him. 

“Did you see the way Randall kept looking over at me?” 

“Who is he again?” Castiel asked, trying to look around at the couples that were walking near them. 

“That handsome silver fox.” 

Castiel looked around to try and find someone who looked like the animal but shook his head, “I have no idea who you are speaking of.” 

“Pity. I’d say if I weren’t already married to you on this occasion I’d make sure that woman would no longer be a problem.” 

He shook his head, knowing she was only joking. 

“Rowena.” 

“I jest.” 

Discussion about the case was put on hold since Thomas and Rose decided to join them for dinner that night. Castiel found that he liked the couple and their silly stories and kind personalities, so he didn’t mind spending a meal without working. 

He didn’t, however, like that because the two had joined them, the seat next to him was not occupied by Dean. Instead, the hunter was across the table from him, talking quietly with Demian. Castiel focused mostly on his dinner and answering any of Rose’s questions that she directed towards him though he couldn’t deny that he was more morose than usual. 

Dean caught his eye from across the table with a look of concern, silently asking if Castiel was alright, when suddenly, a blood curdling scream came from somewhere in the hotel. Without thinking, Castiel and his hunters were up and running towards the sound. They made their way through a hallway to where several people were standing around looking into a room with faces of horror. Demian and Barnes had the forethought to pull out badges while Dean was ready to draw his gun. 

As they pushed their way through the onlookers, they came face to face with blood spattered across an oak desk, dripping onto the floor with a bloodied furry body across the middle. The woman standing in the room staring at the scene as she sobbed was the first person Sam went to, asking her what happened. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” She repeated over and over again. 

“Ma’am, let’s get you out of here. Follow me.” 

As Sam and Rowena escorted her out of the room, Demian and Barnes went to talk with hotel management, leaving Castiel and Dean to take in the scene before them. They ushered all of the onlookers out and shut the door behind themselves. 

Instantly they were looking around the room, trying to find any clues to who or what did this. 

It was clear the animal on the table was meant to startle someone, perhaps as a warning. 

“This doesn’t make any sense. None of the reports before mentioned anything to do with dead animals,” Dean stated, staring at what appeared to be a rabbit but Castiel realized something. 

“This isn’t a real animal.” 

“What?” Dean questioned, looking at the animal again. 

“It’s fake or perhaps it was taxidermied,” Castiel stated. “The blood isn’t real either.” 

Dean swiped his finger through a portion of it and sniffed it, realizing that it was a homemade version of Halloween blood. 

“Why would anyone fake something like this?” the hunter asked rhetorically. 

Castiel had little idea as well. Someone or something had gone through great trouble to make sure the scene looked horrific at first glance. 

The two of them looked around the room more for any signs of what could have happened but turned up with nothing. The room appeared to belong to the resort, as it was bland and underwhelmingly decorated but it had a name card for Tabitha Stewart, M.D. 

They left the office and found Sam in the hallway and the woman, presumably Tabitha, standing with Demian, Barnes, and Rowena with tears down her face. 

“Did you get anything out of her?” Dean asked his brother. 

“Not much. She said she’s the marriage counselor they hire for the retreat every year. She also rambled on and on that the place is cursed and too many bad things happen here. I couldn’t get much more out of her.” 

“Do you think it could be cursed?” Castiel asked, though his instincts told him it was unlikely. Rowena would have picked up on already. 

“Not from what we’ve seen but it’d be stupid to rule it out,” Sam declared. “I just know whatever’s going on, I’d rather have some backup. I’m going to reach out to some other hunters and see if anyone can step in. At least we’ll have more eyes on all the couples” 

None of it really made sense. If there was a monster, why would it target a marriage counselor with a fake dead rabbit? Why would it do it during an evening meal with a bunch of guests around? 

“I’ll begin on research and attempt to find any correlations between our previous victims and the counselor,” Castiel stated, knowing he would be in for a long night of reading. Whatever it was, he hoped they’d find it because something _real_ got hurt.


	5. Chapter 5

By the time Dean had made it into the dining hall for breakfast, his friends were already seated and chatting with a woman with dark brown hair, though he couldn’t see her front he knew exactly who she was. 

Coming up to the table he tapped her on the shoulder as he walked by, waving to her when she looked at him. 

“You got here fast,” he commented as he took a seat. Eileen smiled and nodded before she began to talk and sign simultaneously. 

“I got Sam’s text and drove all night.” 

“Did you get any rest?” 

“I got my four hours,” she confirmed with a smile. 

“Thanks for being here.” 

His brother, who was sitting right beside the huntress started talking animatedly, signing every few words he knew. 

“I was just telling her about what we know. Cas was in my room with me last night looking for anything that could fit this and we really couldn’t find much of anything that would lure people into the woods but also attempt to scare them with fake-dead animals.” 

“But that’s when something weird happened,” Barnes chimed in. He looked exhausted, probably stayed up all night as well. 

“What?” Dean asked, looking between them all. 

“A teen showed up this morning, from the kitchen, told us that he was the one to set the prank because that counselor had nudged his parents into getting a divorce a few years ago. He begged us not to take him in.” 

Dean shook his head and groaned. Fucking teenagers. 

“So it wasn’t the monster at all.” 

“Nope,” Sam concluded. 

“So we still don’t know what this thing is?” 

“Unless something happens, all we have are police reports and hearsay. There’s nothing that tells us it is a monster, really.” 

Dean wanted to slam his head against the table. They’d only come out to this resort on a hunch that something unusual was going on but actually being here wasn’t giving them answers. None of these couples were standing out to them, none of the staff really seemed weird either, and none of them were searching as hard as they could have. 

“Alright? So what are we even doing here?” 

“If there is even the slightest chance that it could be something supernatural, we need to stick around and watch out. But until then? We can… I don’t know, actually enjoy a vacation,” Sam suggested with a shrug. 

“What’s she going to do?” Dean asked, looking to Eileen. 

“I’m the new counselor.” 

He laughed. “Are you qualified?” 

“Eileen Miranda PHD, is.” She smirked at Dean and he laughed again. She was a pretty sly lady. 

“Nice,” he said with a grin. 

“Oh, Dean,” Sam cut in. “Joe said that since it’s raining, you’ll be off duty today unless it clears up.” 

He assumed as much that morning when he woke up to the sound of rain hitting the cabin’s windows. Since people were already less than thrilled about walking down to the shooting range, he doubted they’d want to trek down there in the mud and rain. Plus, safety protocol was probably against people shooting weapons in a storm. 

“So what am I supposed to do?” Dean asked. He was actually kind of excited about his free time. 

“I don’t know. Enjoy yourself?” Sam suggested sarcastically. “Join the activities?” 

“You can join us,” Rowena piped in. “We’d love to have you with us, wouldn’t we, husband?” 

_Great,_ Dean thought to himself. 

Once breakfast was cleared away, Dean followed Rowena and Cas through the halls of the hotel until they got to a large room with multiple floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the pond out near the golf course. Dean quickly slid around the other couples who were already there to go up to Jenna, the art instructor he’d met at orientation and ask her if he could jump into the session. 

“I don’t see why not, and you’re friends with the MacLeods so as long as they don’t mind, I say grab a seat.” 

Dean nearly threw up in his mouth hearing them referred to as the MacLeods. He didn’t even know that’s the name they’d chosen to go by. Castiel MacLeod sounded so wrong it made Dean’s skin crawl. 

He attempted to wipe the disgusted look off his face as he returned to sit to Castiel’s left. 

“I got you a canvas, brushes, and an array of paint colors already,” the angel announced, pointing to the materials before them. 

“Thanks.” 

As more couples started to come in and grab their art materials, Rowena announced that she was going to try and track down a glass of wine to start since this morning class was clearly not offering any. 

As she left, Castiel leaned closer to Dean to speak. 

“I’m afraid I won’t be any good at this.” 

Dean smiled at his friend. He didn’t doubt that Cas would probably suck at first since the guy had probably never painted anything in his life, but Dean had a feeling that with how dedicated and thoughtful Cas was with everything, the angel would probably make a pretty great painter if he tried. 

“I think that’s the point,” Dean said with a nudge to Cas’s side. “See those people up there?” He asked, pointing to the two couples who were in the front, right next to Jenna’s canvas. There was a blonde woman with a bored looking spouse as well as two people who already had paint smeared on their clothes. “Three of those people are the only ones in this whole place who will actually be able to paint. The rest of us might get lucky.” 

“Is this going to be a step by step tutorial?” Cas asked with some apprehension, “I’ve heard that people go to those often.” 

“I hope so. I can’t paint for shit.” 

Rowena hadn’t come back by the time Jenna went to the front and announced herself to everyone. The instructor took a moment to describe the brushes and how people could go up to get paint whenever they needed during their hour in the room. 

“I’m so glad you all could join me here today, though some of you may be disappointed to know that I am not going to be showing you how to paint something today.” 

Dean and Cas both looked to each other, their eyes growing in size with concern. Castiel laughed a little when Dean mouthed the word ‘shit,’ to his friend. 

“To me, painting and other media have to come from within to truly be called art,” Jenna continued. “Merely copying something I’ve created does not allow you to connect with your artwork in the same way as fully creating something of your own. That being said, I won’t let you all go off and just paint anything. In the spirit of this retreat, being surrounded with so many of you lovely couples, I’m asking that you paint something that represents ‘love.’” 

Dean felt himself tense up hearing that direction, knowing that anything he painted that represented ‘love’ was too personal to paint at all. Knowing he was tense but not wanting Cas to ask him why, Dean kept his laser focus on Jenna praying she would say that the prompt was only optional. 

“You can paint anything that reminds you of love, paint someone you love, paint anything that speaks to you about the prompt love,” she said with a dreamy voice. “There are no limitations to your art today besides lunch time at twelve o’clock. I will be circling around to help anyone if they need it, but trust yourselves to know what to paint. Enjoy.”

Both Dean and Cas stared at their paint and brushes like they were cursed, unsure where to even begin while others in the room were already painting pink canvases with red hearts. Frankly, that capitalist marketing scheme people associated with love made Dean’s skin crawl. How did pinks, reds, and anatomically incorrect hearts have anything to do with love? Love wasn’t like that. 

Love was terrifying and raw and destructive. Love meant loss and heartbreak and loneliness more than anything else. With more people divorced now than ever, and some of these couples in this very room heading there probably sometime in their future, Dean just didn’t get why they were choosing to represent it so shallowly. 

Cas must’ve already figured out what he wanted to paint because he was covering his canvas with some green shade he’d mixed up and was too lost in thought to acknowledge Dean’s still white surface or the fact that Dean was now staring at his friend for a few moments too long. 

How could he not with the way Cas’s head tilted with his concentration and how his tongue poked out between his teeth, just a little, as he brought his arm back and forth with wide strokes. That transfixed look brought Dean back to a time, just he and Cas pulled over on the side of an empty desert highway. He’d been pissed for some reason or another, probably something to do with Sam, and he’d been arguing with Cas over something he can’t remember and without thinking he pulled over and stormed out of the car. 

By the time he’d calmed down Cas had found a spot on the hood of Baby and was staring up at the stars with the same look of concentration as he looked at his painting, and Dean had never thought anything could look quite so beautiful. The moon had been full and bright, illuminating just enough of Cas’s face as he looked up to the sky that all of Dean’s anger before had completely dissipated. He’s not sure how long he just stood there, at the edge of the road, staring at the celestial being he got to call his best friend, but it felt like a while. Long enough for him to realize the calm and peace he’d felt just by catching a glimpse of Cas looking so gorgeous felt a whole lot like love. 

With that image in mind, Dean picked up the first of his paintbrushes and swirled together some black, blue, and purple and began painting the image from memory. It wasn’t good by any means, it hardly resembled any of what he saw in his mind but he painted on, attempting to show the way Baby glowed under the moonlight and the dark cacti that had surrounded them but they had hardly recognized. 

Painting somehow took him out of his own mind where he was no longer worried about the case or annoyed with the fact that Cas hadn’t wanted to be fake-married to him. Instead the process of bringing the brush to the canvas and hearing the satisfying scratches as the bristles moved across the scene steadied him. He was so focused on his work that he hadn’t noticed Jenna announcing that there were only five minutes left before lunch and they needed to start cleaning up. 

He only got out of his zone when Cas’s hand landed on his shoulder. The angel squinted at Dean’s painting (they really needed to see if he needed some glasses) and smiled. 

“This is lovely, Dean.” 

Nerves gripped his stomach as Dean realized what Cas was seeing. Just a dark painting of a car in a desert with a splotchy tan blob seated on top of the hood. It wasn’t great but more than that, Dean knew Cas had to know what the image was meant to be. 

He suddenly felt too exposed and heard himself fibbing, “Nah, it’s not that great. And besides I spent too much time on Baby that I didn’t get to add anyone else. It’s actually pretty bad. I’m probably just going to toss it.” 

Cas frowned deeply and looked like he was ready to say something, but Dean cut him off quickly. 

“Let me see yours.” 

Without much preamble, Dean slid his stool over with a loud screech and looked at Cas’s canvas. 

It was completely abstract, just greens, yellows, and the faintest browns all around. The colors moved and blended together in seemingly nonsensical ways but all seemed to go together beautifully. It wasn’t a painting Dean would usually stop and stare at if he ever came across it, but somehow it felt like Cas had put a lot of thought into the way the colors laid out. 

“This looks really cool, Cas.” 

“Thank you.” 

“I didn’t know you were into green so much.” 

“Yes, well, it appears I am.” There was something to Cas’s tone that felt important and sincere. Perhaps it was just pride towards his painting. 

“Good work,” Dean complimented as he clapped Cas on the shoulder. “I’m gonna drop my brushes in the sink and go grab some food, I’m starving. I could probably use a beer too.” 

Before Dean walked away he realized something. 

“Hey, did Rowena ever show back up?” 

“No, I don’t know where she is,” Cas said with a headshake. 

Dean rolled his eyes. If he had the chance to be fake married to Cas he wouldn’t be wandering around the hotel trying to find another glass of wine. She was doing the whole fake-marriage thing so wrong. 

“Probably found a bar,” Dean declared with only a touch of distaste evident in his voice. 

“I would assume so,” Cas agreed. 

Cas wound up insisting on cleaning up for Dean with the request that Dean go grab them all a table at lunch in case the others weren’t out of their activities, which Dean decided was way better than getting watery paint all over himself. 

In the dining hall, the majority of guests had already settled into their tables and Dean had to maneuver around the room to find where Demian, Barnes, Rose and Thomas were already seated. As Dean grabbed his plate for the buffet, he quietly asked Demian if they wouldn’t mind stopping by the cabin for dinner that night with some pizzas to finally sit down and really talk about the case. They were there for a purpose and they really needed to think of something better than ‘maybe it’s not a monster.’ 

Dean opted out of the afternoon activities after lunch since he didn’t think it’d look right to join in on Rowena and Cas’s ‘couple’s therapy.’ Instead, he headed out into town to the closest grocery store and grabbed a couple cases of beer, some snacks, and a few frozen pizzas he could throw into the oven back at his cabin. 

Sam was already seated on the steps leading up to the cabin by the time Dean had walked down the path with the groceries in arms. 

“You already done for the day?” 

“Yeah the couple I was with started fighting halfway through because the husband decided to tell Katie that she touched him better than his wife did. It was really uncomfortable for everyone.” 

Dean grimaced at the thought. 

“I hate these people.” 

“They’re not all bad,” Sam said with his signature eyebrow wrinkle. 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

Dean let them both inside and dropped his groceries on the kitchen counter and started putting things away and preheating the oven. 

“How’ve you been doing out here?” His brother asked. 

“It’s quiet,” Dean shrugged. 

“Have you been practicing?” Sam asked, pointing to the guitar that was in the corner of the room. Dean’s own guitar was back at the bunker since he knew he’d be lent one from the resort—one admittedly better than his own. 

“Kinda have to?” Dean replied. “Tomorrow starts my classes since no one really wanted to do guns.” 

“Can I hear something?” 

Sam sounded genuine but there was no way in hell Dean was going to pull out his guitar and sing kumbaya for his little brother. No way in hell. 

“Fuck off and help me get the snacks out, everyone should get here soon.” 

It was under an hour before everyone had gotten to the cabin and were all sprawled out on the chairs, tables, and floors looking through case files, lore, and whatever else they could find on the internet. Barnes had started taping ideas on index cards to the wall as well as images of the previous victims. 

“Look I get that Hera and Aphrodite seem like they could be targeting couples and all but seriously, here?” Sam argued with Eileen. “Of all places goddesses could go you think they’d pick some random resort in Indiana? Doesn’t seem like it’s elite enough for them.” 

“Then what about another cupid?” Dean asked, ignoring Barnes and Demian’s sounds of intrigue. They’d already spent too long going off on tangents to explain to the men some of their previous supernatural encounters. 

“I’d have heard if another cupid broke ranks and went ‘rogue,’” Castiel explained, debunking yet another theory. 

“I think we need to interview couples,” Sam said with a groan, “See if something is off. Any red flags.” 

“From what we’ve found there are two former spouses who live locally,” Barnes stated. “Jordan Kurtz lives about thirty minutes from here and Amanda Michaelson is a few towns over.” 

“Cool, who’s handling that?” Dean asked. 

“We can,” Barnes offered. “I’ve got a background in journalism and since we have the police badges, I think we could make it work.” 

“Right, good.” 

They were all clearly exhausted but they had practically as many ideas as they’d started with. 

“I still think we should look into other deities and maybe gods that are interested in marriage?” Eileen suggested. 

“I don’t know about the rest of you but I’d rather like to relax in a bath with a glass of wine in my hand,” Rowena declared. She’d been helpfully scouring her grimoire and casting small spells that might help them detect when someone was in danger. With so many couples and staff around the resort though, she said it was the best she could do at the time. 

“It’s late,” Castiel noted unhelpfully. “You should all go and rest. I’ll stay here and work on this since I don’t require sleep.” 

“He doesn’t need sleep?” Demian asked, sounding really intrigued. 

“Angel perks,” Dean replied, feeling a bit smug.

Both Sam and Eileen promised to continue looking through the night before they went to bed and Barnes and Demian promised they’d update everyone about what they learned at the interviews the following day. With that and a few hugs around, everyone left the cabin, leaving just Cas and Dean. 

Without saying anything, Cas helped Dean pick up the trash that had collected around the room before settling back at the small dining table and diving back into the lore. As much as Dean wanted to stick around and hang out with his best friend, he knew with his guitar classes in the morning he’d probably need to get some rest in order to not scare off the guests. 

“Hey, I’m gonna head to bed,” he announced to the angel from the bottom of the stairs. “You need anything?” 

“I’ll be fine, thank you.” Castiel said with a smile, making Dean’s heart flip. “Sleep well.” 

“Right, yeah. You too—I mean, have fun reading?” Dean groaned at his awkwardness but it seemed to just make Cas smile more. 

“Goodnight, Dean.” 

“Night, Cas.” 

As Dean climbed the stairs he couldn’t wipe the grin off his own face. 

He quickly got ready for bed and laid down on top of the covers ready to get some sleep when he realized that Cas was there and would be all night. Knowing that nothing would happen to him, especially with his angel watching out for him, Dean allowed himself the chance to sleep comfortably. He stripped down to his boxers and crawled under the blankets. The only thing he wished could’ve been different was having Cas wrapped up with him under the covers.


	6. Chapter 6

There had been a few times during the night that Castiel had to actively force himself to get back to researching as Dean’s snores from the other room would distract him. 

Too many nights he’d spent watching over the hunter, counting the breaths he took in the night and finding comfort in the knowledge that Dean continued to keep breathing. Though he was an Angel, he still found himself dreaming, hoping for a time in his life where he could lay beside Dean and take in each breath and know he’d get to count them for all of the days they had left together on this earth. 

He took comfort in the fact that he’d remain by the Winchesters’ side over the years. He’d see them age and grey, and God willing, live until they were wrinkling and old. He knew life always came to an end, and that one day he’d lose both the brothers, but having the opportunity to be by their sides for as long as he could was a blessing. It still terrified him to his core. 

How two creatures, only a blimp in time compared to what Castiel had lived though, could mean so very much to him, didn’t fully make sense. He shouldn’t have been wired to care more deeply than wanting humans to survive and do well, but somehow these two had made their way into his heart. 

And Dean—Dean completely uprooted Castiel’s beliefs, his values, and his loyalties. He’d known early on that Dean was important but how caring and self-sacrificing he was, but the hunter’s continued ability to do so much good in the world despite the evil he’d faced is what amazed Castiel the most. Dean had flaws, as all humans do, some that often drove Castiel mad, but his devotion to protecting humanity and his love for his family were undeniably what made Castiel fall. 

He loved Dean in a way that knew no bounds and was certain that love would never waver. Though it would’ve been far more rewarding to have Dean’s love in return, Cas accepted knowing he’d have to live without it to remain by Dean’s side, and that was enough for him. It had to be. 

The door to the cabin rattled as someone knocked gently. It was only then Castiel realized night had turned to morning. 

Uncertain who could be there at that hour, he moved towards the door, not sensing Sam or Rowena’s presence. 

“Good morning!” A cheerful voice announced before the door fully revealed who was behind it. 

He blinked with surprise when he saw Rose standing before him with a large white box and a to-go drink carrier with what appeared to be coffee. 

“Rose? What are you doing here?” Castiel asked, trying to step out onto the porch and shut the door behind himself before she could peer into the chaos of case information strewn across the cabin. 

“Oh sorry,” Rose apologized, moving back to allow Castiel some space on the porch. “Thomas and I were on a walk last night and saw all of your friends heading here, and I thought maybe you all crashed here so I wanted to offer you all some donuts.” 

She opened the box to reveal a few colorful pastries and frosted treats that Castiel knew Dean would devour most of if he caught sight. However, Cas wasn’t entirely welcome to Rose’s presence with all he still had to do, and his hope that he could spend some of the morning with just himself and Dean. Still, he acted as gracious as he could. 

“Oh, that’s very kind,” He said with what he hoped did not look like a forced smile. “Unfortunately, I was the only one who stayed over, though I do enjoy donuts, as does Dean.” 

“Oh?” Rose mused. “It was just you and Dean last night?” 

“Yes,” Castiel confirmed. He was fairly certain he knew what she was assuming but he quickly formulated a lie he hoped would suffice. “We continued talking after everyone left and I slept on the couch.” 

“Where was Rowena?” 

“She doesn’t enjoy cabins much,” he explained, though he sensed Rose didn’t quite believe him but was too polite to say. 

Hoping to hear Dean rising, Cas turned his ear towards the door and tried to listen in on the sounds of the cabin, wishing Dean could relieve him from this conversation. All he could hear were Dean’s snores. 

“Yeah, that doesn’t seem like her,” Rose commented, oblivious to his thoughts. “You two are an odd match, if I’m honest.” 

“We’ve heard that,” he agreed easily. 

“Don’t see you two talking much.” 

He sighed, realizing he was going to have to entertain the conversation since he was woefully unequipped with the communication skills necessary to politely dismiss unwanted socialization. 

This all would’ve been so much easier if he and Dean had come here as a pretend couple. There would have been no need for Castiel to actively think about acting adoring and doting towards his spouse if Dean had that role, in fact, Castiel was certain he’d have the opposite of someone like Rose questioning his relationship; he’d have people telling him he was overdoing it with the ‘acting.’ 

“I suppose not,” he said dryly. “When friends are around, Rowena and I prefer to focus on our time with them and save our quality time for just the two of us.” 

“Hmm,” Rose hummed, unconvinced. He could sense the questions stirring in her mind and he figured now was the best shot he’d have at attempting to politely sneak back into the cabin before she asked things he couldn’t answer. 

“Thank you—for the donuts,” he said with as charming of a smile as he could manage, knowing it had nothing on Dean’s. 

“Mind if I come in and eat?” 

He inwardly berated himself for being too kind. He knew he wouldn’t be able to muster up the words to turn her away without hurting her feelings but he at least had his wits about him to know he couldn’t allow her inside the cabin. 

“Oh, uhm, how about we find a bench and eat outdoors?” 

He was relieved when she nodded in agreement and moved to start walking the steps. 

“Aren’t you going to ask him to go?” Rose asked before Castiel had even touched the top step. 

“Ask who, what?” 

“Ask Dean to tag along?” 

Again, he didn’t know how to tell her no and a large part of him knew he’d rather have Dean there to take away some of the conversation load than attempt to face whatever chatter Rose was likely to subject him to. 

Castiel wasn’t certain how Dean would like spending the early morning with their new friend but Cas wasn’t planning to give him a choice. 

“Yes. Wait here.” 

The angel let himself into the cabin, quietly locked the door behind himself for good measure, and headed up the stairs to the loft where Dean was fast asleep on a large bed. Surprisingly Dean was sprawled out under the red and black flannel blankets, hugging one of the pillows to his chest.

Cas smiled at the sight, rarely getting to see it, as Dean usually slept stiff as a board during their hunts, prepared to fight at any moment. For whatever reason Dean must’ve felt comfortable enough last night to not have his guard up in the night or perhaps the bed had been too comfortable for him to waste a night’s sleep. 

He felt guilty pulling Dean from his peaceful slumber but Castiel knew he had someone waiting outside for them and he’d really rather not continue to fumble through a conversation with her alone. 

“Dean,” he called out softly, hoping to not startle his friend awake but his friend was too deeply asleep to even register Cas’s voice.

Knowing it would likely end with a gun in his face or dodging a few fists, Cas stepped up towards the bed and gently shook his friend’s shoulder. 

“Dean, wake up. Rose is here with donuts and I’m trying to get her to leave the premises so she doesn’t see the case information but she’s insistent you go along too.” 

Somehow the hunter must’ve been well rested enough to not try to attack the angel waking him. Instead his eyes fumbled to stay open as his consciousness rose to the surface. 

“Hmm?” Dean asked through half-closed lids, and Castiel could tell the hunter was only half cognisant. 

Castiel felt that peculiar feeling of overwhelming adoration attack his senses, watching Dean slowly come awake. Before he did or said anything idiotic, he stepped back a few steps and grumbled to his friend. 

“Just wake up and get dressed.” 

A full body stretch cracked and popped some of Dean’s weathered joints. Through a yawn the man grumbled, _“Fine,”_ though Castiel knew he wasn’t entirely aware of what he was agreeing to. 

Moving back down the stairs and out the front door, Rose had settled on the hanging swing on the cabin’s porch. He tried to smile at her naturally again but was fairly certain he’d never learn that skill either. 

Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait too long before the front door was opened. 

“Mornin’” Dean greeted roughly as he walked out rubbing at his eyes against the brightness of the morning sun, still yawning. 

“Good morning!” Rose cheered. “Oh here! I got some coffee,” she said, reaching towards the carrying container and handing Dean one of the four coffes she’d purchased. 

Dean’s eyes lit up at the mention of the caffeinated beverage and he took it greedily from Rose’s outstretched hands. 

“Bless you,” he mumbled as he sipped his first taste. 

“I was thinking we could eat over by the gazebo?” Rose suggested with a bright smile on her face. 

“Oh sure, that’s where my classes are today,” Dean agreed with an easy shrug. “Let me grab the guitar and we can head on over there.” 

Once Dean came back outside with a guitar strapped across his chest, they ventured on their way down the gravel path near the cabins up towards the vibrantly green lawn. They made their way onto the sidewalk and followed its winding curves as it led them towards the main building, stopping when they reached the gazebos. Aside from the landscapers, they appeared to be the only ones outside at that hour.

As Castiel predicted, Dean began devouring the donuts, ensuring that he allowed himself to try every flavor Rose had gotten. It was when Dean was midway through his third donut that Rose began asking questions again. 

“So you play guitar, Dean?” 

“Kind of,” he mumbled into his hand as he attempted swallowing his food. He swallowed a sip of his coffee before continuing. “Mostly just for fun in my room when I feel like it.” 

His answer clearly intrigued Rose since she turned to Castiel and asked excitedly, “Have you heard him play?” 

“A few times,” Castiel admitted thinking back to the times he’d been wandering the bunker halls at night, checking in on his sleeping friends only to hear slow and heartfelt tunes coming from under the crack of Dean’s door. 

“Wait, you have?” Dean turned to him shocked. He almost seemed worried about Castiel having heard him which seemed ridiculous. 

Castiel rolled his eyes. 

“Dean, we live together, how could I not hear you every now and then?” 

“You live together?” Rose blurted out, making both men turn back to her. 

“Lived—” Dean corrected immediately. “We lived together. Now he lives with Rowena.” 

It took a moment for Castiel to understand why Dean chose to lie about such a thing but when he realized he was meant to be married to the witch, he attempted to play along.

“Right. Of course, that’s what I meant.” 

It seemed no matter what Castiel did or said around their friend, there was always a level of suspicion on her face, one he was certain meant prying questions he wouldn’t know how to answer properly. He truly wasn’t cut out for this undercover role. 

“How long have you two been friends?” Rose asked, followed rapidly by, “Dean were you the one to introduce him and Rowena?” 

“Oh, we’ve known each other for quite a while and I’m not sure,” Castiel answered in Dean’s place. “It may have been Sam that introduced us?” 

“Who was your best man?” 

The question was particularly odd and Castiel looked between her and Dean, knowing he was entirely unfamiliar with such a phrase. 

“My what?” 

“I was,” Dean answered for him, his eyes telling Cas that he was messing this up horrifically. “I was the best man. Sam officiated.” 

Castiel realized he had no concept of the modern wedding and put it in the back of his mind to ask Dean someday if he ever remembered. He was certain it wouldn’t be a topic Dean was particularly knowledgeable and perhaps Castiel was better suited to ask Sam but Castiel had had so few chances to speak to Dean recently that he wanted any excuse to at this point. 

The three of them chatted a little bit, Dean and Rose connecting over her knowledge of cars. It was after about thirty minutes that people started appearing outdoors. Mostly workers appearing to be heading to and from their work zones. Castiel was a little shocked to see Rowena among the people heading outside. She appeared to be ready to walk towards the path to the cabins but stopped short when she saw Dean and Cas at the gazebo. 

“Oh there you are, my sweets. I’ve been looking for you. Everywhere.” There was an unnaturally kind tone to her voice with a hint of an edge that told Cas that she’d been mildly annoyed he hadn’t been where she wanted him to be when she’d begun looking. 

“Good morning, wife,” he greeted, feeling entirely uncomfortable in the fact that she’d chosen to sit on his lap due to there being a lack of seating closeby. 

Her arms were draped around his neck, and from a quick glance to Dean, even the hunter thought it was a peculiar sight if his scrunched up nose had any indication. He tried to make it look natural but Castiel was anything but natural in his day to day movements and habits that he knew he likely looked like an uncaring spouse. 

“I just wanted to tell you that we’re going to be doing the wine tasting again,” Rowena declared. 

Perhaps if it had been another one of the activities, Castiel would have been more inclined but he found the fermented grapes to leave a quite unpleasurable taste on his tongue for hours that he could not get rid of. And to pair that flavor with countless mouldy cheeses sounded an absolutely miserable time to sit through once again. 

“But we already did that,” he tried to explain, hoping he didn’t sound too annoyed. 

“I know, and it was wonderful,” his fake-wife chidded through a wide smile. “Come along.” 

He knew it would be in character to act complacent and follow her along but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. Most of the morning had not gone the way he had hoped it would and this was something he at least had control over. 

“Actually, I’d like to stay if you don’t mind,” he replied, staying seated as Rowena stood up. “Why don’t you join me?” 

“You want me to sit on the floor and play the banjo with you all?” She laughed heartily at the thought and in retrospect the prospect of her sticking around to play guitar with them did seem absurd when there were a plethora of more Rowena-like activities for her to do. 

“Maybe you’ll like it?” He supplied awkwardly, knowing it wouldn’t do much. 

She pinched then patted his cheek as she said, “I’ll see you at dinner, husband.” 

He could feel all eyes on him as he turned back to Rose and Dean. 

“Looks like you’re sticking with us,” Rose said happily, although her eyes seemed a little uncertain about the conversation that ensued. The believability of he and Rowena being a happy couple was absolutely abysmal but from his observations many of the couples here acted similarly. Perhaps they weren’t as out of place as he felt. 

“Looks like it,” he said with a thin smile. 

By the time the rest of the couples joined them under the gazebo, Castiel had all but forgotten about Rowena. He’d been too focused on watching Dean in such a strange environment, tuning and lightly strumming his guitar and setting out small pencils and sheets of paper neatly. The hunter did it with the same ease and care he took while cleaning and loading his guns, and Castiel was a little mesmerized. Something deep within warmed seeing Dean engaging in something so normal. They were still on a case but for a moment Castiel got to catch a glimpse of the hunter outside of that world. 

He understood that both Dean and Sam were comfortable with their positions in the world, and Castiel too was satisfied with the role he had, yet it didn’t stop him from wishing it could’ve been different for the brothers. He wishes he could go back and, without ruining the entire universe, change how it all played out—to take the boys out of such a life and allow them to live peacefully and safely; even if it meant never knowing them at all, he’d want them to live a good life. 

By the time Dean had completed setting up and the other staff had brought over the resort’s store of guitars, about five couples had come to join them. Castiel made himself scarce to the side, just slightly behind Rose and Thomas. He continued to make pleasantries with the couple whenever they brought him into their conversation but Castiel was perfectly content just watching Dean. 

“Okay everyone, I’m Dean if you haven’t already met me yet,” the hunter announced awkwardly. Castiel could tell by the way his friend smiled a little too brightly that Dean was slightly nervous. When his friend glanced at him Castiel tried to smile encouragingly, but he knew he had a lacklustre smile if the way Dean always turned away had anything to say about it. 

Dean kept talking to the group as he sat cross legged in front of them all and pulled his guitar into his lap. 

“Today we’re going to be learning four chords that will help us write a short song. The goal is to get the chords first so we can work on a few simple lyrics that can be sung along with it. I won’t make anyone perform in front of everyone though. We’ll be able to take our songs to different parts of the grass and play for our spouses, but I do need us all to be here while I teach you the chords.” 

It took the better part of twenty minutes for all of them to start getting down the chords before Dean allowed them to add in some simple words to form a melody. In the theme of the couple’s retreat Dean had to ask them to write the songs for their significant other which most everyone seemed pleased with. 

Castiel, however, was struggling with what to write. Being that he had to pretend Rowena was his heart’s desire and her not being in attendance, he continued to fumble with getting any words down on the piece of paper Dean had handed him. 

“Alright everybody, it sounds like most of you are ready to share with your partner, so you can break off and take a few moments to find a nice spot and show them what you worked on. Lunch will be in about twenty minutes so leave your guitars here when you’re done.” 

“Will you perform for us first,” Rose asked before everyone moved to get up. 

Dean looked rightfully stunned by her request but when the other couples seemed in agreement with her, he seemed to consider it. 

“Uh—I didn’t really prepare anything since I was helping all of you,” Dean admitted. 

“Come on, play us something you wrote.” One of the wives said. 

“Uhm. Oh—okay. I’ll try.” 

The chords Dean began playing were completely different than the ones he had taught them, but Castiel was familiar with them nonetheless. They were ones he’d heard many nights strolling through the bunker’s hallways—ones he’d listened to outside Dean’s door as the man started and stopped over and over trying to get them just right. 

When Dean started singing, Castiel couldn’t control the way his heart tumbled inside of him, finally getting to hear his friend without the muffler of a wooden door or against the booming sounds from the Impala’s radio. 

The words were simple yet Castiel knew they came from Dean’s heart since his friend had that look on his face he only got when he cared about something deeply. They were about love and finding a way against all odds and Castiel felt each one immensely. 

As the rest of the couples clapped for his friend, Cas could only stare, wondering what had given Dean inspiration to write those words but knowing he would probably never hear an answer if he asked. 

Dean was unsurprisingly bashful and thanked everyone before ushering them off to sing to their spouses. 

“Castiel?” A voice whispered to him and he turned to his right to see Rose looking at him. Thomas was waiting just by her, clearly used to her social nature. 

“Yes?” He asked the auburn haired woman, wondering why she was looking at him as she was. She sobered a little from her typically happy and cheerful persona and grabbed his forearm, looking at him intently. 

“You should tell him.” 

Her words struck a chord with him but he tried to pretend he had no clue what she was speaking of—learning from the Winchesters to deflect when things got uncomfortable. 

“Tell who, what?” 

She didn’t look amused though. She glanced over to Dean who was cleaning up the gazebo, and back to Castiel. 

“Tell him how you feel.” 

He hated that he was so obvious that a complete stranger could already know his longing towards the hunter but it frustrated him even more that he was ruining his cover for this case. He had been the one to suggest fake-marrying Rowena in order to go undercover and learn about the couples yet he had spent more time with Dean than his own fake-wife and hadn’t learned more than one couple’s name. 

“Excuse me?” He asked, trying to sound affronted by her accusation. Again, she didn’t seem to find his acting believable. 

“He likes you too, I can tell.” 

He risked a glance at Dean, hoping his friend wasn’t lurking, and when he saw Dean speaking to one of the couples, he looked back at Rose and tried one more time to pretend. 

“Rose I’m married—” 

She cut him off with an annoyed eyebrow raise, “You may be fooling other people but you’re not fooling me.” 

He didn’t know what to say. 

“That song was about you,” she added. And that nearly made him laugh. 

“It wasn’t,” he denied immediately. If there was one thing he was certain at the moment was that Rose had seen something in Dean’s song that simply wasn’t there. 

“It was,” she insisted despite him choosing to ignore her words. “He looked at you right after he was finished. You should tell him.” 

“I can’t,” he said rather forcefully, unable to continue with this conversation. Especially with Dean so near. 

Almost like he could hear Cas’s thoughts, Dean came up to them, probably concerned with Castiel’s sudden shift in tone. 

“What’s up?” Dean asked, looking at Rose and Thomas with a twinge of distrust. 

“Oh he was just telling me he didn’t like his song,” Rose explained simply. She stood up and stood next to her husband and explained that they were going to go grab a seat in the dining hall for lunch before heading off. 

“You don’t like your song?” Dean asked once they had left. 

“I didn’t even finish,” Castiel lied. For some reason looking at Dean felt like a struggle. Though he knew it wasn’t rational he didn’t want the hunter to see anything in his eyes that could tell him just how much Rose’s words unhinged him. 

“I can help you with it if you want?” Dean suggested, completely unaware of Castiel’s upset. 

“No, that’s alright, I should—” He took a deep breath and stood up, dusting off his clothes a little and trying to force a smile he knew would look unnatural. 

“I should go and find my ‘wife’,” he announced hating the way Dean frowned immediately at him. 

Without knowing what else to say and knowing Dean would rather chew off his own arm than to ask Castiel about feelings, Cas turned around and began walking back towards the resort, assuming Rowena might be in their suite…. Not that he particularly wanted to speak to her at the moment but at least he could accompany her to lunch. 

Walking towards the elevators Castiel spotted Demian and Barnes coming through the lobby wearing suits that made them look official. It dawned on him that the two men had gone out for interviews with the spouses of previous victims. 

“Oh Cas, have you seen Dean and Sam?” Demian asked once he was in earshot. 

“Dean was finishing a class but I haven’t seen Sam yet. How did it go with the witnesses?” he asked. 

“About what you’d expect,” Barnes explained. “Took them a while to open up but once we got them talking—I think we have something.” 

“What is it?” 

When the elevator opened, the two men stepped in with him for some privacy. Barnes still kept his voice low as he explained, “Just like we expected, none of the couples were actually as happy as the statements made it seem. Every spouse we talked to said that their partner deserved it. Amanda Micheaelson said that her husband “had it coming,” and told us he’d been cheating. They all had.” 

They’d suspected that the couples were not actually happy with one another but adultery added a new element to their case. 

“So whatever this is targets infidelity,” Demian explained, looking proud of himself. 

“I agree,” Castiel said with a nod. “Did they say anything else?” 

“You know what?” Demian replied. “One thing that stood out to me was Jordan Kurtz said she wouldn't change her mind, if she could go back.” 

“What does that mean?” Castiel pondered. 

“We’re not sure.” 

“I’ll start looking into it. Dean might be headed to lunch. Let him know I went back to the cabin.” 

The two men nodded to him as he stepped out of the elevator and they stayed in to go their separate ways. 

His mind was a mixture of many thoughts as he made his way through the long hallway towards the direction of his suite. The victims were all adulterers who had come to a marriage retreat meant for happily married couples. Why would they do that? 

Something he continually struggled to understand was infidelity. When the world was so vast for humans and there were billions of people they could meet, it baffled Castiel how people wouldn’t choose to end a relationship if a new one came along. Surely people had many options and it was clear that not all people were meant to stay with only one. He couldn’t understand some human’s choice to hurt someone they were with to be with another all for the sake of what? Sexual intercourse usually? Was it truly that incredible that it could tear relationships apart? 

It simply didn’t make sense to him how people could so thoughtlessly choose to be with someone they didn’t love deeply enough to stay committed to. How could someone share a life with someone yet not have the compassion to tell them when their feelings changed?

Love was infuriatingly complicated. 

Just look at him, loving someone whom he knew would never love him in return. But was that true after all? Could Dean love him? Rose’s words, the song, and the painting… they made him question what he’d thought was fact. 

Did the hunter feel something for him in return?

If he did, why hadn’t he said anything about it? 

It made more sense to him that Dean wouldn’t feel anything because Dean Winchester wouldn’t love someone who had betrayed him too many times, who had hurt him and lied to him on many accounts and why should he? Castiel hardly deserved Dean’s friendship let alone a chance at a romantic relationship with him. 

But the possibility that Rose was right? That she saw something between them that she felt was profound enough to share with him, despite thinking he was married? Was it true? 

As his conversations and interactions with Dean swam through his head he tried to remain focused on what he was coming to the room to do. He figured he should check his and Rowena’s room for any books he may have left behind before he headed to the cabin, yet the only thing he could focus on was a vision of he and Dean finally sharing something deeper than friendship. Could it work? Could this be something Castiel could have? 

His mind was racing with his thoughts that he almost didn’t notice Rowena and a man walk into another room that was definitely not the one Castiel was about to walk into. 

Unable to focus on even the task at hand, Castiel decided he wasn’t going to worry about what Rowena had decided to get up to. He quickly walked into the suite and retrieved the three books he’d accidentally missed from his suitcase and made his way back downstairs and down the gravel road towards the cabins, his mind still on a particular hunter. One who maybe loved him in return?


	7. Chapter 7

Happiness looked really good on his brother. It was a thought he didn’t think he’d ever have, not in their line of work, but seeing Sam smile so much made Dean’s inner most hopes rise to the surface. 

He knew Sam didn’t think he deserved even an ounce of happiness, hell Dean himself felt that way most of the time, but if there was one thing Dean knew his brother should have was a good life. It’s what he always wanted for the kid. 

Yet seeing Sam and Eileen laughing with each other as she teaches him signs or as they participate in a few activities with the couples, Dean couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of it. He’d never begrudge his brother his happiness, in fact Dean would do anything to ensure it even if it meant having to hunt solo for the rest of his life, but he still couldn’t help but hate that he’d probably never have it. 

He’d gotten over his pipe dream of a white house with blue shutters and a white picket fence with two point one kids and a dog, but some depraved corner of his heart still held out for it despite knowing how impossible it was. Now, happiness to him looked like waking up in a bunker with his brother and his best friend, lounging around without any imminent threat on the horizon. It looked like coming home from a non-apocalyptic case and kicking back with a beer and watching Cas try and figure out his smartphone. 

He was content with watching his brother fall in love and maybe have a life with Eileen, but it made him ache something fierce knowing he’d probably never get to feel that way, at least not in the way he wanted to. It was a consolation to know Cas would probably stick around for a long time, that unless something large transpired, that he wouldn’t have to dread the moment the angel would walk out the door. He was also reasonably certain Castiel loved him in the capacity angels could and didn’t actually want to leave either Dean or Sam but he couldn’t love Dean in a way that Dean craved. And if the angel _could,_ then he shouldn’t. 

Dean was so insignificant in the grand scale of things that even considering an angel wanting to spend the night with him and hold him the way Dean dreamed of was laughable. What would a creature as old as the creation of time have to do with a human? Why would they want to take care of one or share a life with one? It was idiotic to even dream of marrying Castiel someday in the future because what would that matter? He’d just end up leaving Cas alone. 

It killed him a little knowing he’d never even get a shot, that he’d never know what it would feel like to walk straight into Cas’s arms just because he wanted to, or feel Cas worship his skin the way he imagined Cas might want to with a lover. 

So yeah, seeing Sam with Eileen made Dean really happy but it also reminded him about what he would forever feel he was missing out on. 

He was thankful for seclusion in the cabin, knowing that no one could see him sulking around as he tried to will himself into the costume he had to wear for that night’s masquerade ball. Though he was staff and would be spending most of the time bussing tables and serving champagne, they were allowing staff to dress up as well since it was so close to Halloween. 

He thought he was hilarious as he put on his all white suit (helpfully procured by Rowena prior to the hunt) and tied on the mask shaped like wings, all white with blue on the tips of the feathers. He had Castiel’s smile in his mind, hoping the angel would get a kick out of Dean making fun of him for the night. It seemed like something Cas would secretly find amusing. 

He’d only seen Cas a few hours ago since his friend had still been searching through their books trying to crack the case (something Dean realized neither he nor Sam were actively trying to do) but Dean was already eager to see him again. It was stupid to imagine himself asking Cas to dance to some random slow song and getting to hold Cas against his body as they swayed back and forth, but Dean fantasized about it nonetheless as he walked back to the main resort, careful not to kick up too much dirt and ruin his suit. 

He was pretty impressed with the hotel’s decorations as he walked into the grand ballroom, especially since the resort chose not to follow the cliche bats and monsters route. Instead the ballroom was decorated with silvers and blacks and a whole lot of stars. There were tables of finger foods, and pyramids of champagne, and Dean had to question it for a bit why he was only getting paid minimum wage to work this gig. 

With everyone in costume it became a little tricky to figure out who was who and Dean wandered through the crowd a little until he finally bumped into Demian and Barnes. The two men had gone for old time mobster looks, and played up the persona to a T as Dean joked around with them as they waited for the rest of their friends and family. 

Eileen and Sam found them first, dressed as Lois Lane and Clark Kent though Dean knew for certain Sam had packed an Inigo Montoya costume. He didn’t question it, at least not yet, though his brotherly instincts urged him to make fun of the guy for doing the cutesy couples costume before they were even an official couple. 

Rose and Thomas joined them in costumes they explained to be a steampunk doctor and nurse, which looked equal parts badass and a little frightening in Dean’s opinion and he spent a little bit of time talking to them about their costumes before he started to get a little antsy waiting on Cas. 

If Dean knew one thing it was that Rowena would likely show up fashionably late, which meant Cas wouldn’t be there for a while either which kind of sucked. It was bothering him that he didn’t get to be around Cas as much as he wanted and when he _could_ be with Cas it was always interrupted by someone else. It was probably pretty selfish but the way Dean saw it, since he couldn’t have Cas romantically then he wanted the angel by his side as often as possible. 

He was really regretting not asking Cas to just do this fake marriage thing with him. If he wouldn’t have been such an idiot he would have had every excuse to not leave Cas’s side, to hug him, or hold his hand, or put his arm around Cas’s shoulders. He could have maybe gotten away with stealing a few kisses in front of everyone, just to really sell it all—but no. He’d gone and acted like it was the craziest idea in the world for them to fake a marriage. And it was probably the only chance he’d get. 

The guests were all still mingling when Cas and Rowena made their way into the ballroom. Dean probably wouldn’t have noticed the angel at first if it weren’t for the sparkling red and orange dress dancing like a roaring fire Rowena was wearing. Objectively she looked killer, and Dean was certain she had a few people eyeing her up but all Dean could focus on was his best friend looking like an absolute dream in his costume. 

That velvet burgundy suit hugged Cas in all the right places, showing off the sheer mass of muscles he always kept hidden away in his too-baggy clothes. He was one hundred percent Dean’s wet dream but what struck him the most was the way Cas’s eyes seemed to glow beneath the deep gold of his mask. 

Dean simply couldn’t look away from those eyes, the eyes that seemed to be staring straight back at him as if Cas was feeling the same undeniable pull. 

It was Sammy coughing and elbowing Dean in the side that had Dean snapping out of his trance and finally taking in Cas’s costume. He wound up bursting out laughing when he realized the gold around Cas’s eyes was actually a mask meant to be a demon. Castiel’s smile lit up as well when he realized what Dean was wearing.

They all stood together for a moment while they asked one of the staff members to take their pictures, before Sam, Dean, and Eileen were called to help out with serving. 

Despite carrying trays of champagne taking a significant amount of his concentration, Dean’s attention remained mostly on Cas when he could spare a moment. It was obscene how good looking the angel was, and Dean wanted nothing more than to be the one by his side. What made the fact that he had to work instead of joining his friends for a night of food and drinking, was realizing that every time he caught himself staring at Castiel, the angel was staring right back at him.

The ballroom was bustling all around them. Couples were chatting all around, a live band played up near the stage, and lights flashed throughout the room. Before long, the music dimmed down and guests were asked to find their seats for the first course to be served. All staff moved back towards the kitchen knowing they were about to have trays of food waiting for them. 

Dean could hear Richard Laughlin step up to the stage through the kitchen doors and the sound of a warm welcome from the guests. 

“Welcome again Cardinal Springs Guests,” the owner of the retreat started. “I trust that you’ve been having a marvelous time. I’ve been fortunate enough to speak to many of you and hear your glowing reviews of our wonderful establishment.” 

Not caring to hear Mr. Laughlin praise himself for being rich and wonderful, Dean focused his attention on helping the staff stack plates of covered dishes precariously high on serving trays. 

“You’re really wearing white?” Jenna asked Dean with a very judgemental laugh. 

Knowing full well each dish held either chicken or eggplant parmesan, he felt she was justified. 

“Didn’t really think it through,” he laughed back. It wasn’t long before all trays were loaded and the servers were showing unnatural strength and balance carrying those trays and Dean was hyper focused on not being the asshole who dropped his own. 

When they walked out of the kitchen Mr. Laughlin was still rambling on and Dean knew that he and the servers weren’t allowed to leave their positions on the back wall until his speech was finished. 

Don’t mind the fifty pounds of steaming food or their aching arms. 

“This is usually the part of the night where I ask our event planner, Megan, to step up on stage and give out a few awards to some of our guests and staff for their participation and dedication to our marriage retreat. However, Megan had to step away for the night but sends her regrets, so you are all blessed with me still.” 

It was maybe two more minutes they had to stand there waiting though it felt like twenty. Dean was certain his arm was about to give out by the time Mr. Laughlin declared to enjoy their meal and the wait staff started moving towards their areas. Refusing to get pasta sauce on his white suit, Dean was careful to not rush or walk into someone’s path and no sauce-based mishaps occurred.

It wasn’t until later that he noticed anything amiss.


	8. Chapter 8

Parties were generally not very appealing to Castiel but he found this one small enough to actually enjoy for the most part. He also liked the costume aspect to it, although many of the costumes were grossly misinformed attempts at different creatures, people, and decades, Castiel didn’t mind all too much. 

Honestly, he knew the reason he was enjoying it so much was the amount of attention he was somehow getting from Dean. 

The hunter was meant to be working but each time Castiel’s eyes wandered towards Dean out of instinct, Dean was looking right back at him, and each and every time a small little smile would pass Dean’s lips. It was beginning to add to the list of things Castiel wasn’t certain he was reading correctly when it came to his friend, but he enjoyed the looks all the same. 

He could tell most of the guests in the room were enjoying themselves as laughter filled the air and smiles donned most everyone’s face. Barnes and Demian were taking pictures with Rose and Thomas at the photo booth, and Rowena was encouraging Castiel to take sips of the various cocktails the bar was offering. 

Once everyone was asked to take their seats for dinner to be served, his group of friends started to make their way to their seats. Right as the owner of the hotel walked up on stage to begin his speech, Castiel felt a tap on his shoulder. 

“I’m going to get another drink,” Rowena whispered in his ear. “I’ll take the chicken dish if I’m not back before they begin serving.” 

“Will do.” 

She patted him on the cheek affectionately. 

“Thank you, darling.” 

Unfortunately, Castiel had less time to watch Dean working now that there were speeches, awards, and food being served, but conversation with Demian, Barnes, Rose, and Thomas was a nice distraction. The five of them were so engrossed in conversation that it wasn’t until their food was only lukewarm that they noticed. 

“Is Rowena alright?” Rose asked. 

Castiel looked to the seat beside himself, realizing Rowena hadn’t returned. He quickly looked towards the bar to see if he could spot her, but the bar only had a few quests. 

It had to have been at least twenty minutes since she’d left to get a drink sounding the alarm bells in his mind. He turned to Demian and Barnes and gave them a pointed look, hopefully letting them know things were amiss before he excused himself from the table. 

As he weaved around guests and staff, making his way in the direction of the bar, he tried to catch a glimpse of Sam or Dean to tell them where he was headed but saw neither of them. He knew they would each be frustrated with him for not communicating his whereabouts but he found it best to search for Rowena immediately than leave her presence unknown. 

Confirming she was not near the bar, he led himself out the double doors closest to him and ventured through the hallways immediately surrounding the ballroom. Only strangers were around, talking and drinking from fancy glasses but none of them seemed to know where his fake-wife was when he asked if they’d seen her. 

His loop around the downstairs hallway left him with no further answers, leaving him to suspect the next best place would be to look out on the back patio where an open bar and a smaller dance floor were set up for couples who didn’t feel like staying cooped up indoors. He knew it was wishful thinking to believe Rowena would be casually speaking to some of the guests out on the back patio rather than having snuck off to copulate with the man she’d been fond of this trip. 

He felt foolish for forgetting. 

He’d spent just the night before looking into this after hearing what Barnes and Demian had to say.

_“Every spouse we talked to said that their partner deserved it. Amanda Micheaelson said that her husband “had it coming,” and told us he’d been cheating. They all had.”_

_“So whatever this is targets infidelity.”_

_“One thing that stood out to me was Jordan Kurtz said she wouldn't change her mind, if she could go back.”_

How selfish of him to have spent more time fixating over irregularities in Dean’s behavior towards him than taking this case seriously. 

They were looking for a creature who targets adulterous spouses and Rowena had perfectly played that role along with her unknowing target this entire time. If she just would have taken the time to explain this to Castiel, he could have been more attuned to what was happening. Instead he’d spent more time with Dean than concentrating on the safety of the civilians around him. 

He knew he should have found both Sam and Dean to prepare to go searching for Rowena and whatever was targeting her but a flash or red and orange from the corner of his eye drew his attention towards the woods. It was a shadowed area but through his enhanced vision he could makeout Rowena stumbling behind a figure, struggling against invisible restraints before disappearing into the words. 

Knowing whatever had Rowena was strong enough to subdue her magic was enough for Castiel to follow after. 

He ran through his theories of what creature, God, deity, spirit, or monster, would be capable of overpowering a centuries old witch but would choose to focus their attention on righting the wrongs of infidelity. 

A god of betrayal? Wrath? A witch with a bad past? 

The former spouse, Jordan Kurtz, said she wouldn’t change her mind if she could go back. 

Did that mean that she’d chosen for her spouse to die? Were all the spouses presented with this choice? 

It had to be a creature who thought they were being lawful. Providing spouses with the choice to allow their cheating partner to die or live. 

His thoughts paused for a moment as he entered the woods and saw another figure walking ahead of him. As his vision settled on the figure Castiel realized it was Thomas. 

Before he could suss out why Thomas was in the woods, following the path Rowena had been taken, he felt a sharp blow to the base of his skull.


	9. Chapter 9

His stomach was growling as he watched everyone eating food he was told he couldn’t eat until after the party was over. That fact alone didn’t annoy him as much as not being able to sit with their friends and talk and watch the performers during dinner and well… sit next to Cas. 

Speaking of Cas, Dean hadn’t seen him in a little bit. He’d gone to fetch another tray of food and when he came back Cas wasn’t where he’d last seen him. 

He caught his brother by the arm as they passed each other near the kitchen. 

“Have you seen Cas?” 

“No? Why?” 

“He’s not at their table.” Dean tried to not let himself sound worried but his brother definitely could hear it in his tone. 

Sam looked over his shoulder towards their friends table and frowned. 

“Maybe he’s getting a drink from the bar.” 

“Cas doesn’t drink,” Dean pointed out, trying not to sound annoyed. 

“Then maybe he’s getting Rowena a drink. How long has he been gone?” 

“Ten minutes maybe?” 

Sam’s face went from understanding to irritated in mere seconds. “Really Dean? Ten minutes and you’re worried? Hover much?” 

“Rowena isn’t there either,” Dean argued, willing his brother to see the urgentness. Only his brother wrote him off, rolling his eyes like Dean was making a big deal out of it. 

“So they’re probably together.” 

He knew that if the situation were reversed and Sam was worrying over a fully capable angel and a powerful witch gone missing, he wouldn’t send up distress signals either but something in his gut wasn’t settling right.

“Something’s wrong.” 

“What’s happening?” Eileen asked as she approached them both, clearly sensing something going on. 

Dean turned to her and explained, “Cas and Rowena aren’t at their table. I haven’t seen them for maybe ten minutes. 

“Do you think something’s wrong?” She asked, looking appropriately worried. 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay,” Eileen stated, taking Dean at his word. She left no room for Sam to argue as she commanded, “You two start looking and I’ll cover your work. Grab me if anything changes.” 

Without needing to be told twice, Dean took off ready to search high and low until he knew for a fact his angel was safe. He practically sprinted towards the lobby and began looking down the hallways, already worried that somehow Cas could be in one of the many rooms they had no way of checking. 

He felt like such an idiot. This party was the perfect time for something to slip by unnoticed and attack. Why were none of them keeping their guards up? What was wrong with them? 

“They’re not in their room,” Sam said to him once they bumped into each other in the hallway. Dean could already start to feel the onsets of panic. 

“Alright, I’m checking outside.” 

“I’m going with you,” Sam announced but Dean waved him off. 

“You get Eileen and our supplies. Somethings wrong. I’d rather have backup and be prepared. I have my phone on me.” 

Sam didn’t bother to argue and took off in a near jog, leaving Dean to head out to the back of the resort, stealthily checking that his gun was still secure in his waistband. 

Having done the hunting thing for many years and knowing that most of the victims were found in the woods, there was no doubt that’s where Dean needed to head. He didn’t bother scanning the crowd, knowing he wouldn’t catch sight of either Cas or Rowena. 

As he headed out towards the pathway he heard his name being called from behind him. 

He turned quickly, seeing Rose surrying towards him with a look of distress. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked her, hoping she had more information than he did. 

“Thomas,” She announced with worry. “I don’t know where he is.” 

“When’d you see him last?” 

“Like twenty minutes ago. Castiel left the table and didn’t come back for a while so Tom went to go check on him but neither of them have come back.” 

That feeling of dread inside of him built up and Dean wanted to hit something. Now it wasn’t just Cas and Rowena on the line, now they had to worry about a civilian getting mixed up in all this. The stakes were higher and he was pissed. He didn’t have any clue who could’ve taken them. They had zero suspects and no idea what type of creature this was. 

“I’m looking for Cas right now,” Dean assured her, trying to not make her panic. “Tom might be with him.” 

“I’m coming with you,” Rose declared. She looked fearless and determined but Dean knew he couldn’t let her do that. 

“I got this. Hang back and I’ll find him.” 

Either his words or the situation at hand made Rose turn to him with fire in her eyes. 

“I said I’m coming with you.” 

“You can’t.” 

“I am.” 

She might’ve been more than a foot shorter than him in her stilettos but she looked far scarier than many of the badass women he’d met over the years. 

“You’re wearing six inch heels and a dress and I’m going out to the woods,” he argued, knowing that it probably wouldn’t get him far. “You’re not going with me, at least not like that.” 

“My husband is missing. If you think I’m not going out there to search for him with you, you have another thing coming.” 

“Look, Rose. He’s not just missing,” Dean explained, getting frustrated with wasting time getting to them. “My bet is something has him, something dangerous and me and my brother are trained to deal with that sort of thing. You aren’t. I can’t let you go out there and get hurt.” 

“It’s not your choice. If my husband is in danger then I’m not sitting back and losing my mind while I wait for him.” 

He was at a loss for words when his brother and Eileen came rushing up to him with their bags of gear. 

“Dean! We’re ready.” Sam said as he shoved one of the duffles into Dean’s hands. “What’s she doing here?” 

“She’s coming with us, apparently,” Dean answered roughly. 

Sam looked between him and Rose and frowned. 

“Does she know?” 

“We’ll explain on the way,” Dean decided, turning to march off. “Give her a gun. Let’s go.” 

They hardly walked twenty feet before Dean noticed something in the shadows. His heart clenched in his chest when he immediately recognized the golden horns of Cas’s demon mask. 

“Fuck. It’s got ‘em,” he said unhelpfully, stating what they’d already known. 

“What does?” Rose insisted, sounding more pissed at being in the dark than she was worried. 

Dean rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with breaking the news to yet another person. Instead he marched on and let his brother and Eileen handle this one. 

They’d been walking for roughly ten minutes in the direction Dean was relatively certain they needed to go if the tracks and traces of blood were anything to go by. 

“Let me get this straight. You two are hunters, Castiel is an angel, and Rowena is a witch and we’re all going after something that finds cheating spouses?” 

“Yup,” Dean answered for the group. 

“But you don’t know what it is?” 

That was the part that was really starting to piss Dean off. He had no clue what they were walking into. 

“I think Cas does,” he answered with uncertainty. “He had some notes down in a book from last night but I can’t remember what it was called.” 

“So this thing thinks my husband is cheating on me?” 

“I doubt it,” Sam answered. “It must’ve targeted Rowena and Cas, and Tom just got caught in the crossfire.” 

“Pretty much,” Dean confirmed. 

Eileen had moved up ahead of them since talking in the forest at night was essentially impossible for her. Since Dean could sense his brother getting a little protective in letting her run point, Dean moved back to walk with Rose who was trudging through the forest barefoot but not complaining in the slightest. 

“Not the weirdest thing I’ve heard in my life,” Rose said, perhaps as a joke or maybe seriously. Dean couldn’t tell. 

“Do I wanna know?” 

“Probably not,” she shrugged off. 

The forest was pretty dark that night, only the faintest sliver of light from the quarter moon above them. It was quite cold too, though the wind wasn’t very active. There were still few signs of getting close to their missing friends but from what Dean could tell they were walking along the same general direction as the hiking trail. 

“So are Castiel and Rowena really married?” Rose asked beside him. 

“Hell no.” 

“And you and Sam aren’t Rowena’s nephews?” 

Dean turned to her despite not being able to see her well. He felt his whole face screw up with disgust. “Who said that? Gross.” 

“So I was right?” 

“That they weren’t married?” He asked. “Yeah, the guy can’t act to save his life. I doubt it was that hard to figure out.” 

“No. I meant you and him. You’re together, or you want to be at least.” 

He wasn’t really sure how she figured it out but the last thing he wanted to do was crack his heart open for a stranger to hear his mushy feelings, especially knowing his nosy-ass brother was only fifteen feet ahead of him. 

“What I want is to find everyone alive and to take this son of a bitch out,” he answered, knowing it was a dick move but they had people to save.


	10. Chapter 10

He should have realized what she was and had a plan for all of them sooner. Plain and simple. He was here to help the Winchesters continue saving the world and due to him neglecting his duties, Sam and Dean were going to walk in on this scene blind. 

Maybe, and it was an unlikely maybe, if Dean had sifted through Castiel’s notes from the night before he may be familiar with the handful of creatures Castiel considered as possibilities before getting too distracted. 

The Erinyes—the Furies, the goddesses of revenge and retribution, had been low on Castiel’s suspects since the three together were a powerful force. Though alone, as this single Fury was, a small marriage retreat seemed a fair choice to carry out punishments for the wrongdoings of others. 

He should have known sooner. This should have been an easy case if he would have simply paid attention and used his vast knowledge base. 

He’d messed up and now he, Rowena, Thomas, Rowena’s male lover Randall, and presumably his wife were all in the Fury’s grasp and Castiel had told absolutely no one where he’d gone. 

He was overpowered as well. Though no physical restraints held him in place, the goddess seemed to possess the ability to keep her victims held down. 

He could move just enough to feel for his blade and was furious to find it had gone missing. 

Quietly, he assessed the situation wondering how he could manage to free all of them without anyone coming to harm. 

By his count they’d only been gone for around twenty minutes and he was relatively certain the Winchester brothers would have noticed by now. That was good. Help was at least on the way. 

Trying not to call attention to himself, he looked around the small valley they were located. His back was pressed up to a tree and to his right he could see Rowena with glowing purple eyes trying to draw enough magic to free herself and clearly failing. To his left, Thomas was hunched over unconscious with a gash across his forehead. Castiel could tell from the steady rise and fall of his chest that he was merely knocked out and the situation wasn’t life threatening yet. 

What was cause for concern was Randall and his wife before them, a woman Castiel hadn’t personally had interactions with over the week. The man was stripped to only his trousers, pressed against a large boulder as the Fury hovered over him, her hair like Medusa, the snakes lunging and snapping at him as he shrunk back. Though the snakes were intimidating, Castiel knew one pointed breath from her would cause the man’s heart to immediately stop beating. 

Randall’s wife was standing by the goddess’ side, staring at her husband with scorn. 

Castiel and Rowena looked between one another, both frustrated at their lack of power. With a silent glance, he knew that neither of them knew how to get themselves out of their current situation. 

He hadn’t been on earth when the Erinyes had sought retribution but had heard of them amongst a few of the angels. The three were secretly praised by many angels for their tenacity in delivering judgement. He knew their names: Alecto the angry, Tisiphone the avenger, and Megaera the grudging, but he had no idea who stood before him—that is, until she turned. 

Megan, if he recalled correctly, their event coordinator. It could only be deduced that Megan was derived from Megaera though Castiel couldn’t know for certain. Her name didn’t matter though, not when she was clearly influencing Randall’s wife, speaking to her with passionate poison. 

“I told you I could help you Maddie. It’s up to you to make the decision now. Can you forgive him for his betrayals? Can you look at this man who has forsaken all your vows, who has gone behind your back countless times to seek pleasure from others, who doesn’t recognize your sacrifices, your efforts, or your worth?” 

The woman, Maddie, stared at her husband, not listening or uncaring as Randall pleaded with her to stop this. Maddie looked back up at Megan and shook her head. 

“No.” 

“I can make this end,” Megan promised. “You’ll be free of him.” 

“What will you do?” 

“I’ll make him suffer for all the time he’s made you suffer.” 

Castiel urged his Grace to break him free but the goddess’ strength was greater than his. 

“Maddie, don’t do this,” Randall pleaded with terror in his voice. 

“You cheated on me! With my sister! And now this!” The women looked unhinged, likely having spent days hearing Megan’s spiel, influencing her to make her husband atone for breaking their marriage vows with his death. 

“Maddie? Maddie? That’s your name?” Castiel called out, panicked that he wouldn’t be able to talk her out of this in time. 

Maddied looked over towards Castiel, her eyes glassy and unfocused like she wasn’t fully in control of her own body. 

“Listen to me, if you do this, you will be killing him,” Castiel called out. “You may hate him for what he’s done but does he really deserve to die over this?” 

“He broke my heart!” She spat. “He embarrassed me with my entire family and he keeps doing it! He said he’d stop but he’s been flaunting this whore around the entire retreat! We were supposed to be starting over.” 

Castiel could see Megan building off of Maddie’s anger, he could tell the Fury felt absolutely righteous in wanting to end the man’s life for his sins against his wife. Castiel only hoped that his words would sway Maddie against it or they would buy him enough time for his friends to find them all. 

“You can still start over,” he pleaded with her. “You can leave him and never go back. Let him live a lonely and miserable life. Don’t let his blood be on your hands.” 

“Don’t listen to him Maddie,” Megan slithered. “He’s just trying to make you take Randall back. To forgive him for what he’s done to do.” 

“He deserves this,” Maddie declared robotically. 

“Maddie, you must’ve loved him at one point in your life. Can you really bring yourself to kill someone you loved?” 

“Your wife has been cheating on you!” The woman screamed. “How do you not care?” 

“She’s not my wife. We were pretending to be married to find her,” he said looking pointedly at Megan. 

“Lass, he’s not something to damn your soul over,” Rowena declared just then, in her own way trying to help. “He’s not bad but there are far better. Trust me.” 

“Rowena, not helping,” Castiel grumbled. 

“What? I’m just being honest. He’s incredibly handsome but he’s lacking in other—” 

“Enough!” Megan shouted. 

“Who are you to tell her what she should do with this scum! I have spent thousands of years delivering justice to those willing to ruin the sanctity of their unions—of their _family!_ People these days do not value family as they used to, as they should!” 

Megan’s voice carried through the valley. The serpents framing her face thrashed around as she delivered her words. The invisible grips around Castiel tightened until he could no longer budge. 

The Fury laid all her attention on the near comatose woman before her. 

“Maddie, he’s made your life hell. He’s broken the one promise to you he should have kept above all others. You don’t have to live with this betrayal any longer.” 

Maddie’s eyes were glazed over and it didn’t take a genius to realize the power Megan held over her was too much. 

Castiel could no longer speak and worried he wouldn’t be able to change this young woman’s mind. But before Maddie could reply, a shot rang through the woods, jolting everyone to attention. 

Megeara hit her knees with a scream, stunned by the impact of the bullet. Thankfully, the distraction was enough to free the hold she held over them all and Castiel and Rowena clambored to their feet. 

Dean, Sam, Eileen, and Rose all had guns trained at Megaera who snarled from her spot on the grass. The serpents in her hair were more furious than ever, snapping in each direction as they spotted a new person with a weapon. Rowena was quick to overpower the Fury with her magic, ensuring them a few moments before she could attack again. 

Mere feet away, Maddie had collapsed to the ground, unconscious with Randall next to her frantically witnessing the scene. 

“Cas, Rowena, you two good?” Dean called over his shoulder not looking away from his target. 

“We’re unharmed,” Castiel replied back immediately, his eyes trained on Megaera as well. 

At that time, Rose darted across the field straight to her husband and Castiel spotted his blade in the grass near her feet. 

“Is he alright?” Castiel quietly asked Rose as he reached for his weapon and was relieved when Rose nodded. 

Knowing Thomas was alright for now, he focused his attention back on the Fury who struggled against Rowena’s magic. Castiel couldn’t tell if her powers were stunned for good or if she was merely charging up before attacking his friends but he didn’t want to find out. 

He flipped the angel blade in his hand and approached her. 

“He deserves to pay for what he’s done! They all have!” Megaera screamed.

“It’s called divorced, lady!” Dean argued. 

In a flash, Megaera transformed herself back into her human persona. Her hair draped across her shoulders again and her face no longer contorted with rage. 

“I’m doing these people a favor,” she pleaded. “Family is sacred yet no one these days values it. I’m delivering rightful justice to those who commit these crimes against their families. I should be worshiped for this work.” 

“You’re murdering people,” Castiel explained. 

“Not all of them! I give the choice to the one who was wronged, to choose to deliver judgment. Some continue living with the filth who’ve betrayed their vows while others make the proper choice to end their kind.” 

There was something in her eyes when Castiel stood before her, a look he’d seen before in other broken creatures. 

“Where’re your sisters?” 

Megaera looked up blankly and he knew before she said anything where they were. 

“Dead. Years ago. Hunters.” 

He felt for her, he did, in a way only someone who had done the wrong thing for what they believed were the right reasons could. At some period in life humans had been grateful to her divine retribution but now, things had changed, the world had changed and they all knew she had no place in it. 

Castiel could see it in her eyes that she knew it too. With one silent nod, he plunged the knife into her heart, allowing her to finally join her sisters. 

The energy in the forest calmed as Megaera fell to the grassy floor. Around her, Sam, Dean, and Eileen lowered their weapons. As if on cue, Sam ran to check on Rose and Thomas while Eileen checked on Randall and Maddie. Though he was fine, it appeared Dean needed to make sure of it. 

“You good? She hurt you?” He asked worriedly, his eyes roaming Cas’s body for any traces of harm. 

“Oh, I’m fine darling, no need to concern yourself with me,” Rowena teased a few feet away, leveling Dean with a peculiar look. 

“Yes, I’m unharmed,” Castiel confirmed, ignoring their silent stare off. 

He accepted the pat on the shoulder Dean offered though he wished he could have turned it into a hug, but he’d learned hugs were only meant for when one of them came back from death. 

When they were all assured everyone was safe and Thomas’ injuries were healed, Sam huddled closer to Dean and Cas and asked, “What are we going to do about them?” He nodded his head towards Randall and Maddie. 

Maddie was still unconscious while Randall was staring largely into space, his face pale. 

“I can wipe their memories of this night,” Castiel offered. 

“You think you can make Randy there a little less of a cheating asshole?” Dean asked likely as a joke but with what they’d just witnessed, Castiel figured the man at the very least could elect to be a better person. 

“I can manage something.”

He approached Maddie first to clear her memory of the night and ensured she was sufficiently sedated until she could get back safely to the hotel. He approached Randall like a spooked mare and carefully asked if he could heal his injuries. At Randall’s hesitant nod, Castiel administered enough Grace to rearrange his memories, morphing them so that he’d remember he and Maddie had decided to go their separate ways after the retreat through a mutual decision. 

With a small trance spell from Rowena, Randall was tasked with carrying his unconscious wife back to the resort accompanied by Rose and Thomas who were shaken up but doing well. 

“Me and Eileen got the body,” Sam announced to Castiel and Dean. “You guys can head back with them.” 

An exchange of looks between the brothers clued Castiel in that something more than friendship might have been occurring between Sam and Eileen, and in solidarity he grabbed Dean’s arm and dragged the hunter away before any sibling teasing could occur. 

Their pace was slower than the rest and Castiel was grateful for it. In the days they’d been at the retreat he’d been limited in his quality time with Dean and even walking beside the hunter after wrapping up a hunt felt special. 

For a while, only the crunch of the leaves under their feet and the sound of the weapon bag brushing against Dean’s jacket could be heard. Without any lingering threat, the woods were peaceful. 

“What’d you end up doing with him?” Dean asked, filling the silence. 

“I made it so he’d be unable to achieve an erection.” 

Dean barked out a surprised laugh, pausing his walking to look at Cas. 

“Ever?” 

Castiel smiled to himself. He liked surprising Dean and especially hearing the hunter laugh. 

“It will be significantly more challenging for him than it used to be,” he admitted, not having the heart to completely erase the man’s ability. 

“Damn, remind me to never get on your bad side,” Dean joked, elbowing Castiel in the side. 

“You’ve been on my ‘bad side’ many times, only I don’t feel giving you erectile dysfunction would have been an adequate retaliation at those times.” 

“I don’t know man,” Dean said through a chuckle. “It would’ve sucked a whole hell of a lot.” 

The sharp jolt of jealousy twisted in his gut as Castiel remembered how Dean’s romantic life had been years ago. Masking his feelings, he attempted to add in some levity. 

“Perhaps I should remember this form of punishment for the future then.” 

Dean nudged him by the arm playfully. “I doubt it’d have the same effect as it would’ve back then.” 

The way in which Dean said that made Castiel curious. 

“Why’s that?” 

“Cause I’m not… I’m not really... y’know...” Dean’s body language was awkward as he trailed off and left his thought incomplete. 

“Achieving erections on your own?” Castiel supplied, confused. 

“No—Jesus—Cas! I can get it up just fine.” The hunter laughed uncomfortably to himself and breathed heavily before adding, “I meant I’m not really hooking up anymore… at all, really.” 

Castiel would be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed. It had been months, if not years, since he’d felt the clench in his stomach knowing Dean was going home with a random stranger. He thought the lack of casual hookups meant they were all too busy for Dean to be worried about his sexual side, but then things settled down. Then Castiel convinced himself Dean had perhaps matured and prefered staying home and relaxing in other ways. 

He knew what he hoped it meant, that Dean wasn’t seeing other people, but his own hopes didn’t make reality. 

“I’ve noticed you’ve been less likely to seek out the company of others,” he commented. 

“Yeah. I just… it’s not my thing anymore,” Dean responded matter of factly but there was something more to his tone, something that compelled Cas to say: 

“May I ask why?” 

Something in Dean’s eyes shifted and Castiel could see his friend struggling in his mind with what to say. He looked at Cas for a long while, his eyes darting across Cas’s face as if he were searching for the answer to the question. 

“Dean! Castiel! Are you alright?” 

They were both pulled out of the moment and realized only then that they’d made it to the edge of the woods and Barnes and Demian were jogging towards them with twin looks of concern.


	11. Chapter 11

“We’re good, we got it taken care of,” Dean said to Barnes and Demian as the couple approached them, a little annoyed at their timing. 

“Where’s Sam?” Demian asked, looking back towards the woods. 

“Him and Eileen are… taking care of cleanup,” Castiel explained discreetly. 

Before the two men could ask more questions about the case, Rose’s voice overpowered their conversation. A mix of worry and pride was clear in her voice. 

“What were you thinking running after them without telling anyone?” 

Dean, Cas, Demian, and Barnes all turned to look at the couple, eavesdropping in their conversation. 

“I just saw her being tugged off into the woods,” Thomas replied, gesturing to Rowena who was standing with a smirk on her face. “Someone was following her and it didn’t look good. I didn’t even think about it.” 

It was clear Rose was proud of what he did but still worried about what could’ve happened. She sighed deeply and nodded in understanding, right as Rowena jumped into the conversation. 

“Thank you for attempting to valiantly rescue me,” he said with a wistful voice, “but darling I _am_ a centuries old witch, I would have been perfectly fine.” 

“I know that now,” Thomas grumbled, rubbing at the spot around his wound. He chuckled when Rowena quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek and thanked him again. 

“I’m going to go rest now,” the witch exclaimed to everyone. “It’s been a long night. And you two need some time together as well,” she said in Thomas and Rose’s direction before pointedly looking at Cas and Dean. “As for you boys, I expect to be on our way home tomorrow after breakfast.” 

“You got it,” Dean agreed, ready to be back home as well. 

Demian and Barnes agreed to assure Randall and Maddie were tucked into their hotel room without other guests witnessing them which Dean was grateful for. The last thing he wanted to do was babysit some adults. 

With the assurance that they’d all see each other at breakfast, Dean waved off their friends and started to head down to the cabins, beyond pleased that he didn’t have to ask Cas to come with him. 

He knows he wasn’t close to losing Cas tonight, in fact it seemed like the monster wanted little to do with anyone aside from Maddie and Randall, but the fact that he hadn’t known where Cas had been for an uncomfortably long time made him want to stick close by. It was like when he was younger and he used to watch and make sure Sammy was breathing at night. It was a feeling that would always live with him but as long as Sam and Cas were safe, Dean would be okay. 

They were quiet as they entered the cabin and Dean could already feel the weight of a hunt bogging him down. He could easily see himself passing out on the couch in the living room and sleeping for hours but he could feel something brewing in Cas’s mind. 

He shrugged off his jacket, kicked off his boots, flopped down onto the couch and waited for Cas to say whatever was making him a little squinty. 

“You good?” Dean asked his pensive angel. 

Cas stood standing in the middle of the room, making it hard for Dean to relax. He felt on edge with whatever was about to come out of Cas’s mouth. 

“Cas?” He asked again, unsure if the angel was going to answer him. 

“What were you going to say earlier?” Castiel finally asked. 

Dean sat up with his elbows on his knees, knowing what Castiel was asking about but not quite ready to have the conversation. In the woods it had felt a little safer under the cover of darkness and not being able to really see every emotion in Cas’s eyes. Here, he could see Cas’s curiosity and confusion swirling about his features. Here, he felt too much like an open book. 

“What’d you mean?” He asked, playing dumb. 

Dean could feel Cas trying to read his body language and in turn he clenched up even more, unsure what Cas was seeing in him. Could Cas tell that Dean was worried what his friend wanted them to talk about? 

If he was, the angel didn’t show it. “I asked you why you’ve stopped ‘hooking up’ and you were going to respond before we were interrupted.” 

It’d been less than an hour ago but he’d been much braver then. It wasn’t just because he wanted to make sure that Cas knew Dean wasn’t still sleeping around with anyone who was willing but because he felt like he could barely contain the feelings inside him anymore. Every day it was more and more impossible to look at his best friend and not tell him how badly Dean needed him. 

Yet every time he thought he was ready to just say it, to put a name to the way he was feeling and let it be out in the open, he couldn’t. It didn’t matter what he felt. Confessing his feelings and not knowing nothing would come of it wasn’t a tortue he wanted to live through. 

“Oh—I uh,” he started, scratching the back of his neck. “It was nothing important.” 

It was impossible to miss the way Cas’s face fell. 

“Right. I apologize for asking,” the angel replied flatly. 

For some reason the words made Dean’s stomach clench. 

He knew he messed up when Cas nodded emotionlessly and said, “I think I’ll go back to the hotel tonight. Have a good night.” 

Dean cursed under his breath as Cas started to walk towards the door. This wasn’t how the night was supposed to go. They were supposed to relax back on the couch and watch some TV until Dean conveniently fell asleep in the way he sometimes does just to get to sleep next to Cas for a night. 

“Cas, wait,” Dean called after him, jumping to his feet when Cas didn’t seem to be changing his mind. “Cas—” he called again, “stay.” 

For a moment he was convinced Cas was going to walk out the door but the angel sighed heavily and turned back to Dean with only a nod of agreement. 

They settled down onto the couch and Dean flipped it to a random channel, realizing he wasn’t going to be able to focus on what was on the screen when Cas was so grumpy beside him. Dean could feel the frustration wafting off of his friend in waves, and instead of being able to ignore it like he usually could, Dean found himself asking: 

“What’re you thinking about?” 

“As you said, it’s nothing important,” the angel replied. 

Dean didn’t expect for Cas to give him a straight answer, not when Dean had just done the same thing, but it still bothered him that Cas didn’t want to tell him. It was so frustrating to want to be the person Cas could open up to but never getting the chance. Maybe that’s how Cas felt when Dean did it in return. 

“Do you really want to know?” Dean asked, too fed up with their lack of communication.

Cas was doing a great impression of someone engaging in a TV show and took a while to turn to Dean. He was clearly annoyed when he asked, “Do I want to know what?” 

“Why I stopped sleeping around?”

“Obviously,” the angel sassed. “I don’t ask questions I don’t want to know the answer to.” 

Dean’s eyes actually hurt with the force he rolled them though he was a teensy bit proud of Cas’s sarcasm. 

“Okay, smartass.” 

He didn’t know how he was going to phrase it. Could he really just come right out and say “I stopped sleeping around because I knew no one would ever make me feel the way you do?” It sounded cheesy and too much like a chick flick for Dean to even consider it even when it was true. 

But words like that didn’t just come out of Dean’s mouth. No, he was only capable of expressing his feelings in garbled nonsense.

“It’s cause… when I do…” he tried to explain, starting and stopping as his heart tried to crack his ribs. “I just, I don’t want that anymore.” 

Cas didn’t seem to think this was enough of an answer and pressed for more. 

“Why not?” 

“Hookups, random strangers and random beds…” Dean shook his head, remembering too many nights of distancing his mind as he sought pleasure for his body and wishing things could’ve been different. “It sounds so wrong to me now. And it’s not because I don’t want to get close to someone it’s just that—it’s because of how I feel.” 

“How you feel?” Cas repeated as a question, looking at Dean with his signature head tilt. Did Dean really want to do this? Did he want to have this conversation?

“Yeah.”

“How you feel about what?”

Cas was still confused and Dean was terrified of where this was going to go but he didn’t want to pretend anymore. 

“You, you idiot. How I feel about you.” 

He swears he saw a flicker of emotion in Cas’s eyes before his friend hid it behind a carefully shielded look. 

“I’m your best friend and you consider me family,” Castiel articulated carefully, sounding more like he was convincing himself than anything. “So it’s reasonable to assume you care for me in that capacity.” 

“Well, yeah, but Cas… that’s not it.” He tried to take a few steadying breaths and tell himself that saying the words and unveiling how he felt didn’t have to change anything. They were still going to be best friends but now Cas would be fully aware that Dean cared for him in a way that wasn’t just brotherly love. It wouldn’t change anything. “I have… romantic feelings, f-f-for you.” 

Cas’s eyes widened in shock. 

“Well, I—these past few days I’ve suspected perhaps you did,” the angel explained, his voice mostly a whisper. 

“Days?” Dean said in disbelief. “Cas, I’m talking years here.” 

“Years?” Cas sounded absolutely baffled. 

“Years.” 

“Why did you say anything?” The angel asked. 

Dean almost laughed aloud. Why didn’t he tell his angelic best friend that he, a measly human, had completely gone and caught feelings? 

“Would it have mattered?” 

“Of course it would have mattered,” Cas insisted. “It _does_ matter, even now.” 

It was a relief that Cas hadn’t stomped on his heart and reminded Dean just how much an angel and a human wouldn’t work. Dean should’ve known that even if Cas couldn’t be with him in the way he wanted, his angel would always treat him kindly. It was comforting to know Cas would never purposefully break his heart and they would be able to continue on as the best of friends. 

“I guess I’ve just gotten tired of pretending like I don’t feel it,” Dean explained. He couldn’t look at his friend right now as he got it all off his chest, but it felt good to say the words. “I don’t feel like keeping it a secret anymore if I don’t have to, especially since everyone seems to already know. But it doesn’t mean that this changes anything.” 

“Doesn’t change anything? It changes so much.” 

The emotion in Cas’s voice had Dean finally turning to look at him. 

“How? We can’t be together,” he said harsher than he intended. 

“Why?” 

“Why?” Dean repeated frustratedly. “Why can’t a hunter, with a ticking clock over my head, be with an angel who will outlive humanity?” 

“Yes.” 

“Cas, are you serious?” 

“I am. I want to know why we’d deprive ourselves of the chance to love each other the way we clearly both desire.” 

He’d imagined so many times how he would feel when he heard these words out of Cas’s mouth. He dreamed of his heart feeling ready to burst knowing his feelings were reciprocated and pictured himself with an overwhelming amount of happiness but this wasn’t how he felt. 

He felt heartbroken. Heartbroken for an angel who got suckered into caring for a human. 

“Because I’m just gonna die,” Dean cried. “I’m going to get what, a few good years with you and then what? You’re alone? How is that fair? How could you want that?” 

“Dean…” 

“You shouldn’t want that.” 

He could feel himself getting choked up. It was Cas’s hand on his arm that kept him from picturing that future too much. 

“Dean, listen to me.” 

It felt like a dream when the softness of Cas’s palm cupped his cheek and he could stare into the angel’s eyes. Without thinking he placed his hand over Cas’s and leaned further into the touch. 

Emotion was thick in the angel’s voice as he began to speak. 

“Dean, I’ll _never_ be prepared for the day I lose you because I know, even now, nothing will ever be as painful. If all the times I’ve lost you, or nearly lost you before, have anything to say, no matter the circumstances between us, a part of me will always go with you.” 

He understood Cas’s words easily because they were true for him as well. It didn’t matter if they were together or not because losing the other… it was a pain Dean never wanted to go through. 

“But Dean, listen to me, _any_ time I get to have with you at all is better than none at all…” Cas traced his fingers across Dean’s cheekbones and Dean could feel the emotion in his words. “Living for eons and never knowing the feel of your skin or the taste of your kiss… how could that be better than getting to have it, even if for a brief time?” 

Dean tried to blink back his tears. 

“When you put it like that…” 

“And to further articulate my point,” Castiel said passionately, now holding Dean’s face completely between his hands. “If you would have just _talked_ to me, you would have known that I can come to heaven to visit or to stay with you even, if that’s something you wanted in your afterlife.” 

“There’s no way I’m making it up there with all the shit I’ve done.” 

Cas shook his head. 

“You think me capable of loving you and not ensuring a place for you and Sam in heaven when it’s your time?” 

When Dean couldn’t find the words, Cas continued. “We may have gotten on heaven’s bad side but there are still some believers—” 

“You’re saying we can be together?” Dean blurted out, his mind finally wrapping around Cas’s words. 

“Of course.” 

“You and me? For real?” 

He didn’t know how to contain all the emotions he was feeling. The imagines of him wrapped up in Cas’s arms, the dreams of laying beside one another on Baby’s hood looking at the stars, the hope that Dean could someday introduce Cas to someone as his man. The fact that it was now all a real possibility that he would get to have overwhelmed him. 

“If that’s what you want.” 

Dean had no words for this moment. As much as he wanted to tell Cas just how much he loved him, he knew there was no way those words were coming out of his mouth in any intelligent way. He’d say them—on his life, he’d say those words until his last breath, but for now the only thing he knew he would be capable of was showing Cas just how much he needed this. 

Surging forward he captured Cas’s lips with his own, a touch years overdue. 

“We’re leaving as early as we can tomorrow morning okay?” He whispered against Cas’s lips as he pulled back for a breath. “‘cause if I have to sit through a breakfast where people still think you’re married to Rowena I’m gonna be super pissed.” 

“I don’t think anyone believed it very much,” Cas laughed. Dean’s heart swooped knowing he got to have this. 

“Probably not, ‘cause you’re a shit actor,” he teased, just to feel Cas’s laugh against his lips before the angel pulled him into another bruising kiss. It was nothing like any kiss Dean had had before. He’d fallen in love before, or what he thought was love, but having this, knowing this was his best friend, someone he’d spent years building a bond and unyielding trust with; knowing there wasn’t a side of Dean he couldn’t show to Cas that would make the angel run—it went beyond love. 

“Oh, that is a plus,” Cas suddenly said with a chuckle, pulling Dean out of his thoughts. 

“What is?” 

“Getting to shut you up when you say something stupid.” 

He stared at Cas in disbelief before barking out a laugh. He loved how proud Cas looked for that one. 

Pulling himself off the couch and dragging Cas along by the hand, Dean couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. This angel was his and he was going to soak up every moment of this time they had together no matter how little it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed my attempt at a case-fic!   
> <3 Paige 
> 
> If you're interested in any of my other stories here are the 3 canon-verse stories I've written before.   
> Less than 800 words: [Let the Spectacle Astound You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21535786)  
> Sharing a bed, friends to lovers: [Breathe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19179343)   
> Pining, Grace-Soul marriage: [Words I Couldn't Say](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23783278/chapters/57131941)


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